The Department of Health (DOH) is testing and quarantining previous Delta variant cases to verify their status as some who were earlier tagged as recoveries tested positive anew for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

This, as the DOH said it was preparing for a possible surge in Delta variant cases with all Level 3 public and private hospitals, and acquiring another genome sequencing machine so it make its tracing and identification of the variant faster. The department is also getting the commitment of health workers if there will be a surge in Delta variant cases.

In a Palace briefing on Monday, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the retesting and repeat quarantine will be done for nine local Delta variant cases and five returning overseas Filipinos.

“So that is our existing protocol right now,” Vergeire said.

Vergeire said that all patients tested positive for the Delta variant will remain in isolation until they test negative after 14 days.

In a separate statement, the DOH said all Delta variant cases “are immediately reassessed to determine their current clinical, laboratory, and isolation status”.

Patients shall be swabbed for repeat reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction tests at the end of their isolation or upon determination that they were positive for the Delta variant.

Contact tracing done shall be reviewed to identify close contacts whose samples may be eligible for sequencing, she added.

Currently, the Philippines has detected 35 Delta variant cases, three of whom have died.