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| Marikina residents are seen inside the public market of the city on July 28, 2021. The Department of Health reports an increase in new COVID-19 infections following the detection of the local transmission of its Delta variant. (Photo by Michael Varcas/ The Star) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] MANILA — Despite an uptick in COVID-19 cases, the Department of Health maintained Saturday that the spread of the more contagious Delta variant has not yet reached the level of community transmission in the country, PhilStar reported. “We need enough evidence to pronounce that there is community transmission,” DOH spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire told state TV. Vergeire said that the Philippines has only seen local transmission of the Delta variant as people infected with this can still be linked back to each other.
“We will be able to declare that there is community transmission if we are able to provide evidence already that we cannot link these individuals to each other anymore and we see that this variant has spread extensively,” she added partly in Filipino. The World Health Organization says there is community transmission in a country, area, or territory if there are large numbers of cases not linkable to transmission chains, large numbers of cases from sentinel lab surveillance, or multiple unrelated clusters in several areas of the country, area or territory.
Health authorities in the Philippines have so far detected 216 cases of the Delta variant, dozens of which are local cases from various regions in the country.
