MANILA— A regional health official recommended granular lockdowns in areas seeing a spike in infections in Central Luzon amid the presence of the COVID-19 Delta variant.

• OCTA: NCR seeing 'early stages' of COVID-19 surge that may be driven by Delta variant

In a public briefing, Department of Health (DOH) Regional Director for Central Luzon Dr. Corazon Flores said aside from Metro Manila, the nearby province of Bulacan also registered an increase in new virus cases.

“We are really recommending 'yung granular lockdown in areas with increasing cases… Ngayon po, mataas ang kaso niya (Bulacan) at alam naman po natin na isa sa mga dahilan ng pagtaas ng kaso ay ang… presence ng ating variants, hindi lang naman po ang Delta, but ang Alpha, Beta,” Flores explained.

(We are seeing a high number of cases in Bulacan and we know that one of the reasons behind it is the local presence of the variants)

A granular lockdown is a strict quarantine limited to streets or barangays, and is aimed to contain a clustering of infections.

Based on the agency’s data drop analyzed by the ABS-CBN Data Analytics team, Bulacan and Bataan were among the top areas that contributed to Friday’s fresh infections with 185 and 163 new cases, respectively.

Bataan is under modified enhanced community quarantine until the end of the month.

• Metro Manila shifts to regular GCQ on July 16; 9 other areas under MECQ

Central Luzon, meanwhile, posted 662 new cases on Friday.

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The health department this week confirmed local transmission of the more transmissible Delta variant, which caused a catastrophic virus spread in India, its origin, earlier this year.

The DOH confirmed more carriers of the disease on Saturday.

Some countries in Southeast Asia, most especially Indonesia, are grappling to control a wave of new infections driven by the virus strain.