The Department of Health Eastern Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH EVCHD), thru its Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit, received a report from the DOH Central Office’s Epidemiology Bureau that of the samples sent for sequencing to the Philippine Genome Center between June and July, ten (10) turned out to be positive for the highly transmissible Delta Variant or the B.1.6.1.7 lineage first identified in India.
Of the ten individuals who tested positive for the said variant of concern, nine (9) are from Eastern Samar– one (1) from Arteche, five (5) from Borongan, three (3) from Can-avid, and one (1) from Tacloban City. Although all have already recovered, the Surveillance and Epidemiology Unit of DOH EVCHD is conducting an investigation for forward and backward tracing. This is to determine the source or origin of transmission and determine the extent of transmission in the area. All are considered to be local cases because there were no recorded travel history outside the region amongst them. Active monitoring and surveillance is being conducted to gather more data about these cases in the areas mentioned.
According to researches conducted about the contagious Delta variant, it is 40-60% more transmissible than the Alpha variant and three times more transmissible than the original SARS-COV-2 virus where one case can infect eight people. It seems to be deadlier where even younger ages develop severe diseases and may appear worse when the healthcare system is overwhelmed. Also, it has a longer duration of infectiousness with a faster time to becoming infectious from time of exposure where even less than fifteen minutes of contact from an infected person, the virus can already transmit. It is highly contagious even when asymptomatic.
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