NEW CASES. The Department of Health (DOH) Eastern Visayas regional office in Palo, Leyte. The DOH reported on Tuesday (Sept. 7, 2021) that at least 21 new cases of Covid-19 variants were detected in Eastern Visayas. (PNA file photo)
TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Health on Tuesday reported 21 new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 variants in Eastern Visayas.
Of the new cases, 17 are the highly transmissible Delta variant, three cases of P.3 or designated as variant under investigation, and one case of Beta variant.
“With this recent addition, there are now a total of 31 cases of the Delta Variant identified and tagged in the region,” Jelyn Lopez-Malibago, DOH regional information officer, said in a press briefing.
Some 18 of the 21 new cases belong to the set of 104 samples sent to the Philippine Genome Center for whole-genome sequencing on Aug. 10, 2021.
The three Delta variant cases were tested in laboratories outside the region.
Malibago said the three patients tested outside the region are from Daram, Samar; St. Bernard, Southern Leyte; and Palompon Leyte. All three have been identified to be returning overseas Filipinos.
The 14 other Delta variant cases are from Tacloban City with three cases; Maasin City in Southern Leyte, Hernani in Eastern Samar, and Borongan City in Eastern Samar with two cases each.
The towns of Zumarraga in Samar, Mercedes in Eastern Samar, Kananga in Leyte, Mapanas in Northern Samar, and Calbayog City in Samar registered one case each.
Meanwhile, the Covid-19 Beta variant carrier is from St. Bernard, Southern Leyte, and the variant under investigation P.3 has been detected in Calbayog City with two cases each, and one in Palo, Leyte.
“A series of stringent investigation is currently being conducted by the DOH Eastern Visayas surveillance team to determine further details linked to the cases including the vaccination status, case age range, and close contacts up to the third generation for case monitoring and surveillance,” Malibago added.
The DOH stressed the importance of active case monitoring, surveillance, and contact tracing up to the third generation of all confirmed cases to control and contain further transmission.
It has no available data on the total number of confirmed Covid-19 variants cases since it started sending samples to the Philippine Genome Center this year.
As of Sept. 6, Eastern Visayas has already recorded 42,612 confirmed Covid-19 cases, including 40,396 recoveries, and 467 deaths. There are still 1,749 active cases in the region. (PNA)
