BACOLOD CITY鈥撯�揟wo COVID-19 designated hospitals in Negros Occidental are now overwhelmed with patients infected with the virus.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said the Valladolid District Hospital was fully occupied while the Cadiz District Hospital was 80-percent full.
鈥淲e have to worry about it because it has never reached this point where the hospitals are filling up,鈥� he said.
鈥淭hat means the symptoms before were mild to moderate. Now they are moderate to severe. It鈥檚 a cause for alarm,鈥� he added.
Negros Occidental logged 1,284 active cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday.
Diaz believed that the increase in COVID-19 cases was caused by the Delta variant.
鈥淭he problem is the variant results are released by the Philippine Genome Center a month late,鈥� he said.
Meanwhile, six close contacts of the two new Delta cases in this city tested positive for COVID-19.
Dr. Chris Sorongon, Emergency Operations Center deputy for medical data and analysis, said the six patients had no symptoms.
鈥淭hey are all on strict lockdown,鈥� he said.
The two new Delta variant cases in Bacolod involved a 32-year-old hospital health care worker and a 31-year-old resident of the province.
Both were already negative for COVID-19, Sorongon said.
A 23-year-old pregnant resident of this city died after she was infected by COVID-19.
Sorongon said the fatality failed to seek immediate treatment.
鈥淭he pregnant woman began to manifest COVID-19 symptoms on August 27 but only went to the hospital on September 4, and in less than 24 hours, she and her baby died,鈥� he said.
The woman was seven months pregnant and was unvaccinated, Sorongon said.