City may have had Delta as early as June

20 August 2021 – The first Delta infection in the city may have had occurred as early as June.

Executive Asst. V Felipe Puzon Jr. of the city’s lead contact tracing team said backtracing and repeat interviews done on first confirmed Delta variant patient and contacts revealed details pointing to the probability that the Delta variant infection may have started in the city around June.

Mayor Benjamin Magalong on Aug 16 said initial backtracing showed that the variant may have been in the city since July.

But further investigation by the lead contact tracing team showed that one co-worker of the patient started experiencing symptoms on June 19.

Puzon said the said person had also been traveling prior to the onset of symptoms.

He said the team is now establishing if said person is the index Delta case even as backtracing and link analysis continues to track down all contacts for administering of control measures like repeat tests and monitoring.

The first local Delta case, a 23-year old male English as Secondary Language (ESL) teacher is part of the cluster of over 20 individuals who tested positive for the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) last July and recovered hence.

Although he was the first to be detected with the variant, it does not mean that he was the source of the infection especially since he was not the index case in the cluster, according to the mayor.

All of them are now being looked into as probable Delta variant cases but the mayor said the number could go as high as 86.

Link analysis yielded 130 persons linked to the Delta case.

All the more than 20 positive cases had already recovered and had mild symptoms except one who went severe before recuperating. – Aileen P. Refuerzo