Governor Arthur Yap on Friday reminded the public to continue observing minimum health standards as the threat of the highly infectious COVID-19 Delta variant looms.
“Because of the Delta variant kinahanglan hugtan pa nato ang pagsunod sa atong mga minimum health standards and ang tanan kinahanglan magsinabtanay, magtinabangay sa mga anti-COVID measures sa karong panahona,” Yap said during the Capitol’s weekly online press briefing.
On Thursday, the Department of Health reported 32 cases of the Delta variant, but DOH 7 chief pathologist Dr. Mary Jean Loreche noted that none of these are from Bohol.
However, Provincial Health Office chief Dr. Yul Lopez said Bohol should not be complacent considering that the Philippine Genome Center may have not been able detect other cases of the variant yet.
“Dili ta magkompyansa kay matud sa DOH hangtod pa lang ni sa na-test pero wa ta masayod sa dunay wala ma-test sa Philippine Genome Center, we really would not know,” said Lopez.
According to Lopez, the DOH has placed all hospitals in Bohol under “Code Red Alert Level 4.”
The DOH directive raises the number of allocated COVID-19 beds in hospitals.
“Ang tanan na mga kawani medical employees and frontliners of hospitals, on call at all times ug dili itugot ang pag leave o bakasyon tungod kay dili ta mo kopmyansa aning atong gi lantaw na Delta variant,” Lopez said.
At the provincial level, health authorities do not have new health safety measures as they have instead focused on intensifying their testing, contact-tracing and quarantine operations.
Lopez also highlighted the need for tighter border control particularly in areas adjacent to Cebu where the Delta variant has already started to spread.
He said that while the mandatory RT-PCR testing for Bohol-bound passengers is still, errant travelers may illegally slip into the province through its coastal towns.
Amid the Delta variant threat, rumors emerged indicating that Bohol will be placed under stricter quarantine measures but this was debunked by the Capitol.
Bohol is currently under Modified General Community Quarantine, the least restrictive quarantine level.