DELTA-Driven case surge expected in next two weeks;

Public, Private offices urged to prepare for 30% manpower capacity

12 August 2021 – As the country reports more Delta variant cases, Mayor Benjamin Magalong on Aug. 9 said to expect the surge in Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases to occur in the city in the next two weeks if not anytime soon.

The mayor had said the city would only be able to delay but not prevent the entry of the more contagious variant despite the preventive measures imposed.

This is why a big part of its contingency plan dealt with beefing up the case management and control systems to address the variant’s expected dire effects such as increased hospitalizations.

He urged the public and private sectors to have their own contingency plans particularly in reducing manpower capacities to avoid convergence and congestion which is one of the risk factors of the more severe and more transmissible variant.

He said administrators and managers should be ready to reduce their manpower to 30 percent once the spike in the cases starts.  Establishments were also urged to intensify the implementation of public health standards and precautionary measures.

In the past weeks, the city had experienced a downward trend in its cases even with its sustained testing and contact tracing capacities but the mayor warned that this could change drastically and even be worse than the previous surge the city experienced last March and April when the Alpha variant struck.

“Our situation This could just be the lull before the storm so let’s be prepared,” he said.

The Delta variant is said to be 60 percent more transmissible than the previous variants and has the capacity to infect a person in seconds and linger more in the air.  It can also cause more severe symptoms, especially for unvaccinated persons. – Aileen P. Refuerzo