Mt. Province Delta variant free no more

Mt. Province, Philippines—Mt. Province, which is the only province in the Cordillera region that is free from the COVID-19 Delta variant has now recorded the first case of the more infectious variant.

Governor Bonifacio Lacwasan confirmed this during the Network Briefing News on Radyo Pilipinas on Thursday, October 7, 2021. He said that the first case of the said variant came from the municipality of Paracelis, the first town in the province accessed through the Isabela route.

“Hindi namin alam na may (Delta) variant pala na nakapasok na isa. That is in the municipality of Paracelis. Kung manggaling ka sa province of Isabela yan po ang unang munisipyo na marating mo,” Lacwasan said

With the detection of the more transmissible variant, Lacwasan said they are continuously implementing virus control mechanisms to include the requirement of either a vaccination card or negative Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) in checkpoints.

COVID-19 cases

At present, Mt. Province has a record of 4,106 COVID-19 cases, of which 461 are active cases. 5,533 have already recovered, while 111 already succumbed to the deadly virus.

Update on Vaccination

Providing an update on their vaccination efforts, Lacwasan said that nearly 40 percent of the population of Mt. Province are now fully vaccinated. He added that they have not encountered any problems in terms of the acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccination.

“Hindi po problema ang acceptability. Ang katotohanan pinagpipilahan po yan at siguro ang problema yung supply ng vaccine kasi umaga pa lang nakikita ko ng may mga nakapila sa vaccination center,” he stated.

Tourism and Agriculture are affected

Due to the restrictions being imposed, Lacwasan said the tourism industry and agricultural sector in the province are very much affected.

“Hindi pa kami nag-open ng mga turista, yung mga restaurant, hotels sila po ang mostly naapektuhan dito sa Mountain Province. Of course, yung mga farmers natin ganun (affected),” Lacwasan said.

To help the farmers, the Department of Agriculture through its regional office provided assistance through several interventions, including the provision of seedlings, livestock and trainings for free.

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