Four Delta variant cases in CDO linked to birthday party — mayor

MANILA, Philippines — Four new cases of the coronavirus Delta variant were traced to one birthday party in Cagayan de Oro City, its mayor said Monday. 

Speaking in an interview aired over ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo, Cagayan de Oro Mayor Oscar Moreno said that the first Delta variant case in the city was celebrating his birthday with his family when the transmission took place. 

"Once reports of the Delta variant came out, we redid the contact tracing and saw that there was a birthday party towards the end of June," he said in mixed Filipino and English. 

"It was the birthday of the index case and they also celebrated Father's Day together, and so four of his relatives were infected too."

READ: What we know so far about the Delta variant of COVID-19

The index case, whose family rented out an apartment in Cagayan de Oro, is also employed in Bukidnon, the city chief said. 

Moreno also said that none of the five were tagged as severe cases—they were actually asymptomatic after ten days—but added that the city still had to keep them in monitoring facilities for the time being. 

Health infra buckles under the weight of Delta

The Cagayan de Oro chief executive also cast fear over the health infrastructure in the city and called for an increase in the dedicated capacity for coronavirus cases. 

The main coronavirus referral hospital in Region 10, the Northern Mindanao Medical Center, is in Cagayan de Oro, along with the biggest private hospitals in the region. 

"I monitored the hospital system in the city...the number of patients in triage is increasing," he said, adding that the LGU is set to announce over 300 new coronavirus cases recorded over the weekend. 

"Every day we have our press briefing, and I always say that we need to strengthen our ICUs and referrals."

OCTA Research has classified the city as being under critical risk due to its high intensive care unit utilization and positivity rate. 

To date, health authorities have recorded 1.54 million coronavirus infections in the country, 54,401 of whom are still active cases. 

At least 119 cases of the Delta variant, which is believed to be more transmissible, have already been reported in the country.