Ilocos Norte is assuming there is a widespread infection of the Delta variant amid the continued increase of COVID-19 cases in the province.

"I think the outbreak started due to Delta but we didn't know officially because there is no confirmation. But we knew, the way the cases were rising, the spread of this virus is different," Ilocos Norte Gov. Matthew Marcos Manotoc said during the ''Laging Handa'' public briefing on Thursday.

"As of today we have 32 confirmed Delta cases in 13 towns. We only have 23 towns here in Ilocos Norte so most of our towns have Delta. We've been operating under the assumption that there is already a widespread (infection) of Delta (variant) here in Ilocos Norte," he added.

"The result from the Philippine Genome Center on Delta cases sometimes I think is three weeks late ," he added.

Manotoc said because of increasing COVID-19 cases, the implementation of localized ECQ in most parts of Ilocos Norte was extended until September 7.

"We extended our localized ECQ in almost the whole province except for the four towns with a slight number of cases. Our provincial declaration under IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) is under MECQ but for us we continue our ECQ in most of our towns," he said.

"We continue the distribution of food packs and we also receiving a lot of assistance. I wanted to thanked the DSWD, DOST, Senator Imee Marcos, Senator Bong Go, the Office of the President and the private sector who have augmented our capacities our food packs we know we will continue to be because of the lockdown," he added. Robina Asido/DMS