AT ONE point in my column last week, I mentioned our coastlines that cannot be guarded by our government on a 24-hour basis. While our frontliners are working on shift with our Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) to ensure that nobody enters the city without proper documents like the negative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test, it is not a guarantee. In my experience before with the incident management team, we cannot stop our people from finding ways to come home while our frontliners are also taking a rest.
I said, “sooner or later we will have our case of the Delta variant.” These thoughts were confirmed with the announcement of the city government that we already have the two cases of the Delta. One is 71 years old from Barangay Banago and the other is a 35-year-old pregnant woman from Barangay Sum-ag. Both have already recovered along with members of their family who have also been tested positive, yet asymptomatic at the time of detection.
The surveillance team of our city cannot be complacent with these developments. They should pursue investigation as to where the Delta came from. As Dr. Chris Sorongon of the EOC said, this could not be an effect of change or mutation within, but rather transmitted from somebody who came into the city. As we knew the nearest having the higher number of Delta cases is Panay Island where an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) is being imposed. Should Sorongon’s statement be the basis of this, no doubt that somebody from the other island has crossed and was able to avoid detection.
One good thing is we remain low on our number of cases. It suggests that the Delta has not yet been transmitted. In case there is a sudden upward trend in figures, then the Delta is in action.
The Delta is highly transmissible. On top of wearing masks and social distancing, the government remained forceful in its campaign that people should be vaccinated.
I agree with the comment of my friend and fellow professor, Dr. Jeony Bigay, in his radio program at RMN-DYHB, encouraging people not to take this lightly. Jeony likened this situation in the city as not just somebody knocking on the door of the house but has already entered the house.
In the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci, an infectious disease expert, warned people that at the community level, the Delta should be stopped. The public does have a role to play in stopping the change or mutation by not contributing to its possible transmission because it is highly contagious. Fauci considered the rise in the number of cases in many states in the US as the “outbreak of the unvaccinated.” He advised that vaccination is important along with the health protocols that should be practiced. Something to note in what he stated about the Delta, which is probably not the worst variant. He said, by giving the coronavirus the way to change through interactions in the community, is allowing other variants to develop, maybe even worse than the Delta.
At our level, we knew the government is rushing to reach herd immunity. This is the reason that we can see the full implementation of vaccination in the local government units.
While the threat of the Delta is imminent, we could assume that any time and we hope not, we can feel and see the trend created by this variant. Yet, along the way, we are not sure who among those with us are probable carriers of the Delta.
The concern for survival should, at the most, be extended to members of our family. I think there is no reason to take a second thought on the vaccination as the way to protect ourselves and our family at present under the Delta.
How we wish we will not be included as victims in what Dr. Fauci’s claims as the outbreak of the unvaccinated. Let us make the move to be vaccinated. No ifs and buts.