THE provincial government has begun taking all the necessary precautions and preparations in case the Delta variant enters the province.

This was revealed by Rhodyn Oro, Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management officer and leading member of the provincial Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

Speaking during the Question Hour of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan on June 21, Oro said the Provincial IATF is preparing for a worst-case scenario – a mass casualty incident – and expressed confidence that the good management system in effect in Pangasinan under the stewardship of Governor Amado Espino III, the province can weather the storm that will be posed by the new variant.

“We have a good team in the IATF. We constantly work with each other and we are preparing for a worst-case scenario that might happen,” said Oro, in response to Majority Floor Leader Nestor Reyes’ query: “How prepared are we against the Delta variant?”

Earlier, Dr. Anna de Guzman, provincial health officer, told the SP that no Delta variant has been detected in Pangasinan although the same was already found on two Returning Overseas Filipinos, one of whom already recovered and the other still recuperating based on the genome sequencing of their specimens conducted by the Philippine Genome Center.

Oro said that part of the preparations is the raising of the number of bed capacity of existing isolation facilities from 500 to 2,076 in addition to the beds in provincial isolation facilities located in Burgos and Sta Barbara towns.

Oro said current bed occupancy is 14.4 percent and attributed it to lower COVID-19 cases from June 1 to 15 at a daily average of 59.9 cases, further down to 47.8 cases daily from June 16 to 20 compared to past average of 67 cases daily in April and 71.2 daily in May.

He cited the good balance between economic activity and the heath needs of the people struck by the provincial government as mainly responsible for the reduction of new COVID cases and high recovery rate of COVID-19 patients.

P/Col. Roland Gayo, police provincial director, said PNP is ready to close the borders of Pangasinan to all to prevent possible entry of Delta variant except those in possession of S passes and Authorized Persons Outside of Residence.

Meanwhile, SP assured Gayo it will be ready to provide funds for the purchase of smartphones for the border policemen’s use after he revealed that the border control points are not equipped with smartphones that can check S passes through the QR codes. (Leonardo Micua)

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