Intensified contact tracing for UK variant on-going in Kalinga

Lubuagan, Kalinga – Having reported two confirmed cases of the COVID 19 UK variant in this town, Lubuagan Rural Health Unit is intensifying its contact tracing up to the third generation contacts with technical assistance from the regional/provincial Department of Health (DOH) and Local Government Unit (LGU) Provincial Health Office (PHO).

The two confirmed cases were both male children, 5 and 7 years old, from Poblacion, Lubuagan who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 by RT PCR last February 17, 2021.

Genome sequencing tests revealed they have the COVID-19 UK variant.

Further tests during and after isolation yielded negative results through RT-PCR on March 3 and 8, 2021 based on the records of the Provincial Epidemiologic Surveillance Unit (PESU) of the PHO.

In a statement, Kalinga Governor Ferdinand Tubban urged the RHU and LGU of Lubuagan to work together to facilitate the rapid conduct of active contact tracing in order to identify quickly those who need to be quarantined and tested so that further transmission of the infection can be stopped.

Meantime, Provincial Information Officer Dionica Mercado informed that the Provincial Inter-agency Task Force (PIATF) members proposed to impose surgical lockdown to the affected barangays in this municipality.

“Adda daytoy proposal iti PIATF nga agkaroon ti lockdown ken dagitoy lima a barangays ittoy Lubuagan ket madaman nga i-prepare iti munisipyo a kasapulan a mabasa wenno ma-review ti PIATF for the approval and signature,” she added.

In addition, PIATF against COVID-19 has initially ordered that the patients be under strict isolation for 14 days and that all contacts to the third level be quarantined and tested.

Governor Tubban assured everyone that the Provincial Government is continuously coordinating with concerned agencies and is closely monitoring the situation and to come up with appropriate quarantine measures for the town of Lubuagan.

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