Two  more cases of Delta virus revealed

The Ministry of Health (Minsa)  is trying to trace how a 14-year-old boy man in the province of Chiriquí, who has no travel history  became the first community case of the Delta variant

Leonardo Labrador, national head of Epidemiology of the Minsa, explained that traceability is being carried out in this case to find or find out how the contagion could have occurred.

“The traceability investigation tells us that there are two families from which approximately two more positive patients have already emerged and that the person detected with the Delta variant has successfully come out of the picture”, said Labrador according to a statement from Minsa.

He said  that the people who are infected are in isolation and that, like the person who infected the child, genomic sequencing is being practiced, but it will take a few days to know the results.

He highlighted that the detection was achieved thanks to the surveillance and genomic sequencing of the Minsa, the Gorgas Institute and the Social Security Fund.

Labrador also referred to another patient detected positive with the Delta variant in Panama and who apparently was infected outside the country, reporting that this person did not present serious or complicated symptoms.

“The population must protect itself against this new variant that is highly contagious, so personal hygiene and the use of a mask are determining factors to avoid contagion, as well as seeking timely care if symptoms related to the virus occur,” he said.

A report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that the Delta variant is as communicable as chickenpox and that each infected person, on average, infects eight or nine people.