COVID-Beta variant detected in Mangaldan
THE local government of Mangaldan has alerted its residents of a positive case of COVID-19’s Beta variant in the town.
The alert was released in an advisory of the local Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) posted on the official Facebook page of the town on Aug. 5
A 57-year-old man from Barangay Palua in Mangaldan was detected to have been infected with the Beta variant (formerly called the South African variant) of COVID-19 on August 5 through the genome sequencing of his specimen.
“The general public is hereby advised to exercise extreme caution and mandatorily observe public health protocols and IATF-sanctioned guidelines,” the advisory read.
The Beta variant is one of variants of concern in the list of the World Health Organization (WHO).It is considered infectious but not as infectious as the highly transmittable Delta variant that originated from India.
The Beta variant is in the same class as the Alpha variant that originated from the United Kingdom, both of which were earlier detected on few patients in Pangasinan.
The infected man had been placed on isolation. No other detail was provided by the Mangaldan LGU in a public advisory posted on social media on August 5. nor did it mention if the man had a history of travel abroad.
The man found with the Beta variant is Mangaldan’s Patient 575. Another new case reported on August 5, was a 36-year-old woman from Barangay Bari, Mangaldan who was dubbed as Patient 576.
As of August 6, Mangaldan already recorded 578 cases, at least 35 are active, 482 had recovered and 59 had died. (Leonardo Micua/Eva Visperas)
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