2 Philippine Babies Die of COVID-19, 2 Dozen Others Test Positive

Two babies have died from COVID-19 complications in the Philippines, while nearly two dozen others have tested positive for the disease, the Department of Health reported on Thursday as 276 cases and 10 deaths were recorded since the previous day.

The announcement tempered good news tied to the Tuesday night release of a 16-day-old coronavirus survivor at the National Children’s Hospital in Manila. The baby, identified as Kobe Manjares, was taken to the hospital by his parents after showing coronavirus symptoms earlier this month.

His discharged gave Filipinos something to cheer for amid a lockdown imposed on the entire island of Luzon, home to the capital Manila and 60 million people. Friday marks the 47th day of the lockdown, which is to continue until the second half of May.

“We already have 25 cases of infants, or those less than 1-year-old, who have tested positive for COVID-19,” Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, spokeswoman of the health department, told an online news conference.

“Two have died and others have recovered,” she said later in the day, correcting an earlier report on the number of deaths.

Vergeire said the babies had likely contracted COVID-19 after they were born.

The new cases bring the total cases to 8,488 and deaths to 568, according to health officials. Globally, more than 3.2 million have been infected with the virus and nearly 230,000 have died, according to data compiled by disease experts at U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.

‘Perfect storm’

On Wednesday, Dr. Benjamin Co, an infectious disease expert at the Manila-based University of Santo Tomas Hospital, warned that the Philippines was facing a “perfect storm” of outbreaks if the government failed to stop the spread June, or the traditional flu season here.

Because every community in this tropical country was highly susceptible to common coughs, fever and cold, this makes them more vulnerable, Co said.

He also said Manila needed to act swiftly before the onset of the rainy season, when storms and flooding are common.

“With a pandemic of coronavirus plus other disease outbreaks that are vaccine preventable, this will create a perfect storm,” Co told the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of the Philippines announced it would not extend a ceasefire that expired Thursday and would order its guerrilla wing, the New People’s Army, to return to an offensive posture, the Associated Press reported on Thursday. The guerrilla group said it was ending the 36-day COVID-19 ceasefire because of military attacks.

Prison deaths

Also this week, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the government to fully report COVID-19 deaths in prisons, after at least nine inmates and nine staff tested positive in Quezon City Jail, one of the country’s most crowded prisons.

The Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the central Philippines also reported one death linked to COVID-19 this week, while neighboring Cebu City Jail reported 212 infections, the global rights watchdog said in a statement.

The government “has not fully reported” prison deaths and there was concern that the disease was more widespread in the prisons system than was being reported, HRW said.

“Unreported deaths of inmates show the urgent need for the Duterte government to be transparent about the spread of COVID-19 inside the country’s overcrowded prisons,” Phil Robertson, the group’s deputy Asia director said in the statement issued Wednesday.

“The government should get serious about the terrible situation in its prisons and jails and accurately report on prison deaths and illness,” he said.

He said the government should take urgent measures to protect inmates including reducing the prison population.

HRW said it had interviewed five inmates who said that at least seven others had died in Quezon city as well as in the provincial jail in Cavite province just south of Manila.

Government officials have not commented on HRW’s claims despite requests from BenarNews.