BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The 35-year-old mother, who was allegedly infected by the Lambda variant, and her newborn baby, tested negative of Covid-19 after they were re-swabbed Monday, Valladolid Mayor Enrique Miravalles confirmed yesterday.
Miravalles said he is not inclined to believe that the mother, who is a Valladolid town resident, was infected by the Lambda variant of the Covid.
The woman has no record of travel abroad, and her family members also tested negative of the virus, he said.
Miravalles questioned the report of the Philippine Genome Center and the Department of Health and expressed doubts over the laboratory results.
The DOH-WV, University of the Philippines PGC and the UP-National Institute of Health reported earlier that the first case of the Lambda variant was found in Valladolid, Negros Occidental, and involved the then pregnant woman.
The DOH said the Lambda variant is currently classified as a variant of interest by the World Health Organization, and was first detected in Peru August last year. This VOI has the potential to effect the transmissibility of SARS-COV-2 and is currently being monitored for its possible clinical significance.
BACK-TRACING
Dr. Jessie Glenn Alonsabe, DOH-WV regional epidemiology and surveillance unit head, said yesterday that there is need for the Valladolid LGU to conduct a back-tracing of persons, who had been in close contact with the woman.
“You don’t have to travel abroad in order to be infected,” Alonsabe said, adding that he considers the case a local one.
The DOH said the woman tested positive for Covid-19 during a routine swabbing on July 2. She was immediately transferred to a quarantine facility even though she was asymptomatic. Two weeks after, her re-swab yielded a negative result so she was declared recovered by health authorities.
But she again tested positive for Covid when she was admitted at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City on July 22 as she was about to give birth.
Contact tracing and swabbing were conducted, as well as on her newborn son, and all yielded negative results, DOH said.
Her specimen was sent to the UP-PGC for genome sequencing on Aug. 2. On Aug. 15, the DOH said she tested positive for the Lambda variant.
It added that the Negros Occidental Provincial Health Office was notified and the mother and her baby were re-swabbed on Aug. 16. The results came out negative, Miravalles said.*
