‘Asymptomatics making Covid-19 fight difficult’

CITY HALL BEAT

Aileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY -- The Baguio City Health Office saidCovid-19-positive people who are asymptomatic or exhibiting no symptoms make the fight against the disease more complicated.
    Of all the categories of illness severity, it is the asymptomatic that is the scariest because they can still transmit the disease, local health experts said.
    Since they do not experience any signs, asymptomatic persons tend to be lax in their observance of the safety protocols endangering people around them.
    "It makes the battle more difficult," according to the city health experts.
    They said asymptomatic people should not neglect the ailment because apart from the fact that they are contagious, they are also prone to developing symptom at a later stage of the illness.
    "Ang spectrum ng Covid-19 na impeksyon ay walang sintomas at may sintomas.
    Sa unang lima hanggang 10 araw ang sintomas ay asymptomatic  hanggang mild symptoms lang mula nung ikaw ay nahawa. Sa pansampung araw, mararamdaman na ang hirap na paghinga, at pag baba ng oxygen level sa katawan," they explained.
    "Kaya kung walang symptoms, hindi nangangahulugang dapat nang ipagwalang bahala ang sakit sapagkat maaari ka pa ring magkaroon ng symptoms anumang oras at maaari kang makahawa ng ibang tao kung hindi mag-isolate at gagawin ang ibang pag-iingat."
    So how can an asymptomatic person know if he or she is infected and thereby protect others?
    "Have yourself tested and when the results come out, we have one advice: trust your doctors," they advised.
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Self-discipline is one key to curbing the current Delta-driven spike in Covid-19 cases and to surviving the pandemic, city health officials said.
    Apart from religiously observing the minimum public health standards like the wearing of face masks, practicing good personal hygiene, physical distancing, ensuring proper ventilation and avoiding crowds, enclosed spaces and close contact conversations, people also need to practice self-restraint and do some sacrifice to stop the spread and therefore the mutation of the virus, the City Health Services Office headed by Dr. Rowena Galpo said.
    “We are in the middle of the war.  Our goal should be to survive and if we have to sacrifice some things then we should.  We can’t play with the virus.  It is its biology to mutate through and if we can’t outdo its biological function then we won’t survive as what happened to the 4.5 million who already died of the virus worldwide,” City Epidemiologist Dr. Donnabel Panes said.  
    Panes said that the common cause of clustering of cases in the city is some people’s irresponsibility.
    “In all of the case clusters that we’ve had, there is one commonality and that is there were irresponsible persons who already had symptoms but still attended gatherings like birthdays, weddings and wakes,” Panes said.
    “Our cases are not random.  ‘Pag may nag-positive, asahan mo may nag-birthday o anniversary and more will turn positive to form a cluster,” she added.
    “The common scenario is that a patient starts having symptoms but ignores it, stays without mask at home until the symptom worsens on day 5, seeks consult and undergoes testing of which result will come out on day 7.  After 2 to 3 days, he will be fetched.  All in all 9 days have passed imagine how many people you have infected at home and what more if you went out and attended a party.”
    The CHSO said residents should exercise self-restraint by abstaining if possible from attending gatherings and indoor activities or if it cannot be helped, by ensuring that social health rules are strictly observed like keeping distance when eating together as it is the time when people remove their masks and converse,
     In offices, workers should do away with their pantry and learn to eat alone or far from one another.
    “Delta is real and it is happening in the households and within offices.  Variants are real and they happen when the virus is spread from one person to another,” Panes said.
    Another reminder is if one has symptoms, he or she should inform health workers at once, go on quarantine with the assumption that it is already Covid.