BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
Five more cases of the Covid-19 Theta variant have been detected in Bacolod City, bringing the total number of infections to 10, as of yesterday.
Executive director Em Ang of the Emergency Operations Center said these specimens were part of the 166 samples gathered from July 9 to August 9 and sent to the Philippine Genome Center for detection of the Covid-19 variants.
Ang said that although the Theta variant, that was first detected in the Philippines, is considered only a variant of interest, it is also highly contagious and can infect an entire household, based on research.
She clarified that those who tested for the Theta variants have already recuperated even before the release of the results of the genome sequencing.
Aside from the Theta variant, Bacolod currently has four Delta cases and a number of Alpha and Beta strains were also detected.
The molecular laboratories in Bacolod have, so far, sent 236 specimens for genome sequencing with the results still being awaited.
Ang also ordered the transfer of active Covid-19 positive patients, whose specimen were sent to the PGC for genome sequencing, to the Sum-ag National High School, while waiting for the results.
The SNHS is the designated isolation facility for Covid-19 patients, who got infected by the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Theta variants.
NEGATIVE
Meanwhile, all the close contacts of the 3-year-old boy and the 63-year-old woman from Mansilingan, who tested positive for Delta, have yielded negative results, based on their RT-PCR tests, Ang said.
She said the first Delta case, the 71-year-old man from Banago, yielded positive for Covid-19 in a retest, but he is no longer considered infectious and has been declared clinically-recovered.
Ang added that the second Delta case, the 32-year-old pregnant woman from Brgy. Sum-ag, tested negative for Covid but her children, aged 5 and 8 years old, and a neighbor, got infected and are now in isolation.*
