BAGUIO CITY – The Department of Health (DOH) in the Cordillera said the first case of the COVID-19 Delta variant has been detected in this city.
In an advisory Sunday, Aug. 14, the DOH-CAR said "it confirms the detection of one Delta variant case in the city of Baguio. The case was reportedly already recovered as per time-based recovery." The case was detected and relayed on Aug. 15.
The DOH-CAR advisory also said that the case is in addition to another Delta variant case involving a returning overseas Filipino (ROF) from Baguio City, but is however recorded in the database of the Epidemiology Bureau and not as a local case here.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong in a text message Sunday said the local case involved employees of an English school in Camp 7 who were swabbed on July 24 and infected more or less 10 of the 100 plus employees who have all been tagged as recovered.
Magalong said the school was placed on hard lockdown for 10 days when the result came out in July.
For the other case involving the ROF, he said the person was isolated in Manila for 14 days upon arrival prior to release and travel to Baguio.
"We are currently conducting contact tracing to 16 passengers who rode with him in a sweeper bus to Baguio." DOH-CAR said the local government is continuously doing case backtracking and contact tracing to assure that close contacts of the local case are found and monitored.
The DOH CAR reiterated anew the importance of the strict observance of the minimum public health and safety protocols especially avoiding unnecessary travels to prevent contacting the virus and its spread.