THOUGH the Provincial Health Office has not received any official advisory about the presence of Delta variant in Pangasinan from the Department of Health (DOH), there is still no certainty that the strain has not infected anyone because of Pangasinan’s proximity to Metro Manila.

This was the response of Dr. Anna de Guzman, provincial health office, to questions raised by members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan last Monday, August 2. “However, since DOH declared that there is a possibility of the transmission of this variant… we may now have the Delta in Pangasinan,” she intoned.

Although she didn’t mention a specific case, she cited the case of an infected traveler who managed to slip into the province a week prior to the hard lockdown in Metro Manila.

She told Board members that her basis for stating that Pangasinan is still Delta variant-free was the absence of advisory from the DOH, since it’s only in Manila where the genome sequencing of specimens of Returning Overseas Filipinos and OFWs is conducted.

She cited the possibility of the Delta variant’s local transmission in Pangasinan owing to the detection of five cases in Ilocos Norte, and some provinces have declared lockdowns in some towns.

De Guzman and Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officer Rhodyn Luchinvar Oro were called back by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan to answer some questions from Board Members about the possible detection of the highly transmittable Delta variant that was already detected in Metro Manila and other areas in the country in the province.

However, Oro downplayed the possibility citing the virus’ low attack rate in the province averaging only 85.3 cases per day, it is relatively lower than those of other provinces, with a two-week gestation period of 2.08 percent as compared to the national average of 7.17 percent.

Additionally, Oro said only 5.9 percent or 124 beds out of the 2,076 available beds in the province’s isolation facilities are occupied to date.

De Guzman warned and pointed to the long coastal areas of Pangasinan where weakest control points are and where suspected virus carriers may enter unnoticed since the land borders of Pangasinan have already been well secured by the PNP.

She called on officials of coastal towns to bar crewmen of ocean-going vessels that dock, particularly at the Sual Port in other areas of the province from disembarking to buy food, fuel and other provisions.

She said the Philippine Coast Guard must be alerted and require ships’ crew to present latest negative RT-PCR test result. (Leonardo Micua)

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