ANTIQUE – Is the third Delta coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case in Pandan town – a 59-year-old woman – a close contact of a couple who were the first such cases in the municipality?
The Department of Health (DOH) Region 6 is currently making verifications, according to Dr. Bea Camille Natalaray, medical officer.
The woman was taken to the Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) in Iloilo City on July 8. Right away, she underwent reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test. She was positive for COVID-19.
On July 19, she was swabbed again and this time she tested negative for COVID-19. On July 20, she was discharged from WVMC.
However, her having been a Delta COVID-19 case was announced only on July 29 after the sequencing by the Philippine Genome Center of her specimen taken during her July 8 swab.
The woman is now considered fully recovered from COVID-19 but contract was launched. Her husband and two children, among others, would be swabbed.
According to Mayor Plaridel Sanchez VI of Pandan, the woman was from the same barangay of the first two Delta COVID-19 cases.
He, however, clarified that the woman lived over a kilometer away from the first two cases.
“Wala man nagakadto ang ining ulihi nga case sa balay sang mag-asawa,” said Sanchez.
He also said the woman had no history of travel outside Region 6 but she went to Kalibo, Aklan on June 30.
It was on July 7 when the woman started showing symptoms such as body aches.
The Delta variant of the virus causing COVID-19 is believed to be the most transmissible variant. According to health experts, it may also be able to partially evade the antibodies made by the immune system after a coronavirus infection or vaccination.
Delta may cause more severe illness, although more research is needed.
About twice as transmissible as the original virus that emerged in late 2019, Delta combines a multitude of genetic features that have enabled it to pierce public-health defenses to stoke more infections.
In general, Delta symptoms are the same as the symptoms of other COVID-19 strains: fever, dry cough, shortness of breath, temporary loss of taste or smell, flulike respiratory and digestive problems, muscle aches and fatigue./PN
