The COVID-19 Delta variant has infected a baby and a 45-year-old man, bringing the number of Bacolod City residents hit by the highly contagious strain to six, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday, August 23.
The two new Delta variant-hit Bacolod residents are a 6-month-old boy from Barangay Bata and a 45-year-old male from Barangay Villamonte, City Administrator Em Ang, executive director of the Emergency Operations Center, said.
The two had completed their 14-day quarantines and had been declared recovered, Ang said.
However, their homes have been locked down in compliance with a DOH requirement, she said.
They will be swabbed for COVID-19 tests again along with members of their households and if their results are negative their lockdowns will be lifted, she said.
The City Health Office is also conducting contact tracing of persons who may have come in contact with the two, Ang said.
The DOH on Monday said 466 additional cases of the Delta variant have been detected in the country, with 52 in Western Visayas.
The government needs further evidence to declare a countrywide surge of the Delta variant, it added.
The DOH 6 on Monday again classified Bacolod City and Negros Occidental as low risk areas for COVID-19.
Negros Occidental is under COVID-19 alert Level 1 and Bacolod City under Alert Level 2.
Negros Occidental had 79 new COVID-19 cases and 5 deaths, while Bacolod City has 85 new cases and 2 deaths, the Department of Health reported on Monday.
Bacolod City has 919 active COVID-19 cases, the DOH said.
Negros Occidental has 645 COVID-19 active cases, the Provincial Incident Management Team reported.*