GUIMARAS – This island province has recorded its first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus – a 30-year-old woman from Barangay Lawi, Jordan town.
The good news is that the woman – a government employee – already recovered from the disease and has in fact returned to work. Her specimen was subjected to genomic sequencing at the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) in Metro Manila in the first week of August after she tested positive on July 28.
By the time her genomic sequencing result came out on Aug. 21, she was already well, said Vice Gov. John Edward Gando.
Still, a backtracking of the woman’s close contacts would be conducted as a precautionary measure. The Rural Health Unit (RHU) of Jordan would do this, said Gando.
According to Dr. Robel Gencianeo, head Jordan’s RHU, the woman’s specimen was selected for genomic sequencing because of her high viral load.
At the time she was ill, the woman was quarantined. After 21 days she was also made to take a repeat RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) test that confirmed she was already negative of the virus.
According to Gencianeo, all of the woman’s close contacts – including her family members – when she was COVID-positive were all negative of the virus so the public had nothing to worry about.
How she contracted the illness was a mystery, too. She had no history of travel outside Guimaras, said Gencianeo.
As of Sept. Guimaras had 413 active COVID-19 cases, 1,708 cases that recovered and 69 cases that died.
Of the active cases, 141 came from Nueva Valencia, 100 from Buenavista, 74 from Jordan, 66 from San Lorenzo, and 32 from Sibunag./PN
