The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday said that the youngest coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) fatality in the Philippines is an infant, who was less than a month old, from Batangas province.
“Ang pinakabata pong pumanaw dahil sa COVID-19 ay isang 29-day-old mula sa Batangas (The youngest fatality for COVID-19 is a 29-day-old from Batangas.),” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said during a virtual press briefing.
Vergeire said the male infant was brought to the hospital because he had trouble breathing or shortness of breath. It was then that he was diagnosed with pneumonia.
“At ang kanyang ikinamatay ay late onset sepsis dulot ng severe respiratory infection (He died because of late onset sepsis due to severe respiratory infection.),” Vergeire said.
Even though the DOH halted issuing information on individual patients, its new COVID-19 tracker website includes one male fatality who is 0 to 4 years old.
Vergeire said the DOH cannot share further details because of privacy laws.
Sepsis, which is an extreme response to infection, was often cited as a cause of death in the previous fatality cases reported by the DOH.
Before the 29-day-old infant, the youngest fatality in the Philippines was a 7-year-old girl from Pangasinan who died due to hypovolemic shock caused by acute gastroenteritis and severe dehydration.
As of Tuesday, there were 5,223 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines.
While the number of recoveries have picked up, there are still more deaths reported.
Of the more than 5,223 cases, 335 have died and 295 have recovered./Stacy Ang
