- MITCH M. LIPA
A suspected case of the COVID-19 Lambda variant is being investigated by the Provincial Health Office and the Department of Health involving a 35-year-old new mother from the town of Valladolid in Negros Occidental.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said the patient, who is the wife of a pastor, was swabbed before she gave birth to a baby boy on July 22 at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City.
Her swab test turned positive for COVID-19, although her close contacts and immediate family members all tested negative. She was discharged and was advised to stay at the healing center in EB Magalona until she tested negative and was released on July 29.
Her initial swab test result was forwarded by the CLMMRH to the Philippine Genome Center for sequencing on August 3.
On August 15, the DOH announced that the virus is of the Lambda variant which is more contagious. Lambda was discovered in Peru and it is a kind of variant that does not respond to any vaccines, Diaz said.
Mayor Enrique Miravalles of Valladolid said that the mother and her baby are already home. He said he will not believe, as of this time, that the mother, who resides in a barangay near the Poblacion, was infected with the Lambda variant, it might just be a common strain of COVID-19, he added.
She has no travel history outside of the province and she was asymptomatic when she was swabbed as part of the protocol before giving birth in a hospital.
Miravalles, as advised by the PHO and the DOH, has asked the Municipal Health Office to subject the mother to another swab test today to further confirm what kind of variant had infected her.
He advised residents of Valladolid not to make any hasty conclusion or panic. — MML
