The Ilocos Norte provincial government confirmed that the COVID-19 Delta variant is the reason behind its spike in cases.
In the Laging Handa public briefing on Thursday (Sep. 2), Ilocos Norte Governor Matthew Marcos Manotoc said there 32 confirmed Delta variant cases in the province.
“So, as of today po, we have 32 confirmed Delta cases in 13 towns; we only have 23 towns dito po sa Ilocos Norte. So, karamihan po ng towns po namin ay may Delta and we have been operating under the assumption po na talagang widespread na po ang Delta [variant cases] dito po sa Ilocos Norte,” he said.
He added that the increase of COVID-19 cases was reported in the cities of Batac and Laoag. Due to this, the province continues to implement localized enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in areas with a high number of COVID-19 cases.
“In our capital city of Laoag and also Batac City, doon po primarily ang mga COVID cases po namin. And tama po kayo, we extended our localized ECQs in almost the whole province, except for four towns na medyo mababa po ang mga kaso po nila. [That] will remain under MECQ, ang ating provincial declaration, as per the IATF. Pero sa amin po, we continued our ECQ in most of our towns,” he explained.
The Ilocos Norte governor said that despite their intensive care unit (ICU) utilization being at the critical level, their recoveries are “far higher” than their new cases.
Meanwhile, Manotoc disclosed that they have rolled out over 182,000 COVID-19 vaccines and that 75,000 residents are fully vaccinated, adding: “Ilocos Norte po is a small province, we have only just about 600,000 people. So, medyo may progress na po but very far pa rin from herd immunity.”
Report from Kenneth Paciente/NGS- jlo
