Delta impact not only hard but long – Magalong

13 August 2021 – Delta variant’s impact will not only be great but will be prolonged as well, Mayor Benjamin Magalong warned.

In his Ugnayan briefing on Aug. 11, the mayor said that once the new variant hits, the city may expect an uptrend in Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases for at least three months.

“It is now inevitable.  The Delta variant will hit us and will hit us hard and we will not be able to deal with it in a month’s time.  It will probably take three months or more for us to realize a downtrend,” the mayor said.

He said this projection is based on the experience of other countries that got hit by the variant which is more virulent and more transmissible.

 “Like in the case of Indonesia, it has been two months since they got hit and until now, their cases are still on the rise,” he said.

 He said that with the previous surge in April driven by the Alpha variant, the city was able to manage and bring down the cases in a short time.

 “With Delta, it will be different.  We will be highly impacted and its effects will stretch maybe until December,” he said.

He said these dire projections are the reasons why the city had prepared for a worst-case scenario.

He said the city has been keeping at its contingency action plan which includes border restrictions, expansion of isolation and quarantine facilities and building buffer stocks of medicines, oxygen and other hospital essentials.  – Aileen P. Refuerzo