DAGUPAN CITY — The Pangasinan Provincial Health Office (PHO) confirmed the first case of Delta variant here.

The confirmation of the variant, however, came late, as the patient has already recovered and is already home in Natividad town.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Anna de Guzman said the patient was a Returning Overseas Filipino (ROF) who arrived in the country on July 13. As he tested positive, he underwent isolation and made a full recovery.

The ROF was then sent home on August 3, along with 20 other ROFs. They were then dropped by the OWWA Duty Officers along TPLEX Urdaneta, and went their separate ways.

De Guzman said 14 of those ROFs were also residents of Pangasinan, namely from the Cities of Dagupan and Alaminos, and the municipalities of Binalonan, Bayambang, Lingayen, Malasiqui, Manaoag, Rosales, San Fabian, and Santo Tomas.

The others were from La Union, Ilocos Sur, and Abra provinces.

On August 7, the OWWA released a letter addressed to Regional Director Valeriano Jesus Lopez, stating that the recently-recovered patient was infected with the Delta variant.

The agency then ordered said ROFs to undergo immediate RT-PCR swab test, along with their direct contacts.

Meanwhile, Natividad Mayor Rosita Rafael urged her constituents not to panic.

She also ordered the recovered patient’s direct contacts be quarantined at the town’s PUI facility.

De Guzman admitted the confirmation from the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) took so long, as it is only capable of sequencing 750 samples weekly.

Meanwhile, the Province of Pangasinan only has 875 active cases, 95 of which are from Dagupan City.

This brings the total confirmed cases in the province to 15, 369, with 14,044 recoveries, and 450 deaths.