MANILA – The number of deaths due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the Philippines increased to five.
The Department of Health (DOH) said one of the latest casualties was Patient 6 who was admitted at Cardinal Santos Medical Center on March 5 before being transferred to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City.
DOH also said last night there were 12 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number to 64.
Patient 6 “suddenly experienced difficulty of breathing and was intubated” on Wednesday. She died later that day due to acute respiratory distress syndrome made worse by pneumonia secondary to COVID-19.
Patient 6’s husband, Patient 5, passed away on Thursday afternoon last week for the same reasons. Just like his wife, Patient 5 was diabetic and hypertensive.
The fifth casualty was Patient 37 who was admitted on March 6 at the Philippine Heart Center after experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 on Feb. 28. He died on Thursday afternoon due to acute respiratory failure.
The country’s first casualty to COVID-19 was a 44-year-old Chinese man from Wuhan City, China, while the second death was a 67-year-old Filipino woman admitted at the Manila Doctors Hospital.
COVID-19, now considered by the World Health Organization as a pandemic, has infected more than 126,000 people in 114 different countries including China. More than 4,600 persons were killed worldwide by the disease as of Thursday.
Meanwhile, of the 12 additional COVID-19 cases, three were confined at the Medical City and two at St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City.
Two were admitted at Ortigas Hospital and Health Care Center and one each at Makati Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center, Marikina Valley Medical Center, and Bataan St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center.
Four of the patients were Filipinos, while the remaining eight’s nationalities were still being validated.
The DOH and deployed surveillance teams, in cooperation with concerned local government units, were now conducting information-gathering and contact tracing on the new cases./PN
