Zamboanga City Hall (File photo)
ZAMBOANGA CITY – Another case of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has been detected here, a local health official announced Tuesday.
However, Dr. Dulce Amor Miravite, city health officer, said the patient is not a resident of the city.
The patient’s test result was released Sunday by the Philippine Genome Center.
Miravite said the patient is a 40-year-old male driver for essential services, who turned out positive in the random rapid antigen test on August 11 at the Licomo checkpoint, at the border with the province of Zamboanga del Sur.
It is the entry point of land transportation coming from as far as Cagayan de Oro City.
Miravite said the patient has completed his isolation period at the local government-owned isolation facility.
“He is now recovered and he is back in his hometown,” she added.
The patient is the seventh case of Delta variant detected since July in the city.
The first was a crew of an inter-island vessel and the other five were his closed contacts. All of them have fully recovered.
Dr. Joshua Brillantes, Department of Health regional director, described the Delta variant as three times more transmissible.
As of Sept. 6, Zamboanga City has 404 active Covid-19 cases out of 12,927 confirmed, with 11,891 recoveries, and 632 deaths. (PNA)
