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Contact tracing intensified as new Covid-19 variants confirmed

By Leilanie Adriano

April 20, 2021, 7:27 pm

LAOAG CITY – The Provincial Health Task Force has intensified its contact tracing of up to the third generation contacts of patients infected with the new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) variant.

This came after a report of six cases from the province that were confirmed to have been infected with the new variant of Covid-19.

Of the six identified new cases, three were from this city and one each from the towns of Solsona, Paoay, and San Nicolas.

“All of the six cases except one death from Laoag were already sent home and recovered,” said Dr. Norman Rabago, provincial health consultant, in a press conference on Tuesday afternoon as he reported that it took them up to four weeks to wait before the confirmation test from health experts in Manila came out.

Following an emergency meeting attended by members of the task force, Rabago said they have backtracked the identification of contacts and urged those who have been experiencing Covid-19 like symptoms to avail of the free reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test being conducted at the Department of Public Works and Highways.

As a result of the massive contact tracing being conducted, Rabago said at least 300 contacts in addition to the previous close contacts of the identified six new cases were taken swab samples and urged to self-quarantine while waiting for the result.

Since last month, there has been a surge of Covid-19 cases in various parts of the province, mostly in the towns identified where the new cases were traced.

As recommended by health experts, a more aggressive contact tracing is being conducted to arrest the spread of the more contagious virus.

For his part, Governor Matthew Joseph Manotoc said Tuesday afternoon that a wide-scale lockdown is not being considered at the moment as the discovery of new variants in the province is not completely unexpected.

He, however, urged the public to be more transparent and cooperate with the contact tracing team to prevent the further spread of the virus. (PNA

 

 

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