ILOILO – Noting the rapid transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in this province, Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. isn’t brushing off the possibility that a “foreign variant” has already entered Iloilo.
“May suspicion kita because of the behavior (of transmission),” Defensor told journalists yesterday.
“Sang una sa isa ka panimalay ang COVID malaton sia sa diutay lang. Subong damo na nagakalab-ot sa 15…amo na indication naton,” he said.
Defensor, however, clarified that only the Department of Health (DOH) through the Philippine Genome Center in Manila can confirm the presence of foreign variants of the coronavirus here.
He said DOH Region 6 has been sending specimens for genome sequencing.
Regardless, he pointed out, health protocols must always be observed.
“Indi ta kasiling nga halog-halugan ta kay indi man ina variant. It doesn’t make any difference, no bearing,” Defensor added, referring to the restrictions on non-essential travel within and into this province as well as the practice of reverse isolation measures at the household level.
Last week, the World Health Organization created a new system to name COVID-19 variants, getting away from place-based names that can be hard to pronounce, difficult to remember and stigmatizing to a country.
The new system is based on the letters of the Greek alphabet. The United Kingdom variant, called by scientists B.1.1.7, will now be Alpha. The B.1.351 or South Africa variant will be Beta, and the B.1.617.2 variant discovered in India will now be known as Delta.
Based on the data (as of June 9) from the Provincial Health Office (PHO), Iloilo had 9,084 total confirmed cases, of which 2,084 were active, 6,768 recovered and 223 dead.
Local government units with the most number of active coronavirus cases were Passi City (124), Oton (170), Pavia (128), Santa Barbara (118), Miag-ao (103), Cabatuan (100), Guimbal (83), Sara (78), Janiuay (74), and Alimodian (58).
PHO records showed from June 1 to June 9, this province logged 1,078 COVID-19 cases, averaging at 120 cases per day.
NO PLANS TO UPGRADE STATUS
Meanwhile, Defensor said he had no plan upgrading the province’s quarantine status to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) or even modified ECQ despite the Hospital Management Office’s (HMO) report that COVID-dedicated beds in capitol-run hospitals were now on “critical level”.
“Sa subong indi pa naton kinahanglan,” Defensor said. “We can pero sa subong way pa kita kalab-ot sa level in terms of number sa ECQ or even MECQ. That’s why we are doing this (border control) so that we don’t have to elevate the community quarantine classification.”
The province is currently under the modified general community quarantine classification./PN
