By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
With the Department of Health (DOH) confirming the local transmission of the highly-infectious Delta variant of COVID-19 in the Philippines, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said “human attitude” is the key in fighting the deadly illness.
Lacson said that the DOH just confirmed it, but it has been the case since the third surge began.
When asked what measures the provincial government will take against the new COVID-19 variant, the governor said they will continue to implement the need for a negative RT-PCR test prior to entry to the province.
“Every local government unit in Negros Occidental is encouraged to call for a granular lockdown when needed,” he pointed out.
In a statement issued on August19, the DOH said that based on the phylogenetic analysis conducted by the Philippine Genome Center and investigation by the DOH’s Epidemiology Bureau, clusters of Delta variant cases were seen as linked to other local cases.
As of this writing, Negros Occidental remained Delta variant-free.
“From the very beginning, we have asked the cooperation of every Negrense to comply with the minimum health protocol,” Lacson said.
Pressed if the resources of the provincial government are still enough to fight the pandemic, the governor said the attitude should be to prevent the spread of COVID-19 so resources will not be diminished.
Meanwhile, Bacolod City has so far recorded four local confirmed cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant.
Its first case of the COVID-19 Delta variant was a 71-year-old man from Barangay Banago and the second one was a 32-year-old pregnant woman from Barangay Sum-ag.
The four Delta cases were already tagged as recovered./DGB, WDJ