COVID-19 illustration | STOCK PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH – 7) reported eight new deaths related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Cebu on Thursday, May 21, 2020.
In a press release issued to members of the media on Friday, DOH-7 said that seven of the patients were from Cebu City while one, an 18-year-old male whose cause of death was due to “community-acquired pneumonia brought by COVID-19,” was from Cebu province.
With the addition of the eight fatalities, COVID-19-related deaths in Cebu City now totals to 22 while Cebu province logged 15.
Of the seven recent deaths in Cebu City, three were ruled out as COVID-related. Two of them, an 85-year-old female and a 75-year-old male, have been suffering from severe symptoms of the disease.
The infection also claimed the life of a 53-year-old male “who had sepsis secondary to community-acquired pneumonia,” DOH-7 said.
Two other patients, who had preexisting health conditions have also passed away and were tagged as deaths under “incidental COVID-19 diagnosis” or patients who died due to different causes but tested positive of COVID-19.
“Incidental COVID-19 deaths are deaths where the cause of death is a pre-existing condition or where its natural cause is death even in the absence of COVID-19 infection (e.g. severe stroke, end-stage renal disease, stage 4 cancers, etc.),” DOH-7 said.
The patients classified under incidental COVID-19 diagnosis were an 81-year-old male who died due to septic shock and a 38-year-old male who succumbed to multiple organ failure.
The patient was also found out to have been diagnosed with end-stage renal disease and underwent a kidney transplant in October 2019.
DOH – 7 said they are still investigating the cause of deaths of two other elderly patients who have been infected with COVID-19 – a 60-year-old female and a 75-year-old male.
Case fatality rate
The new deaths recorded in Cebu City have led to an increase in its case fatality rate from 0.81 percent on May 20 to 1.16 percent on May 21, according to DOH -7.
It also resulted in Central Visayas’ COVID-19 death rate to “slightly increase” from 1.57 percent to 1.87 percent.
“The additional confirmed cases and deaths have slightly increased the case fatality rate or the percentage of deaths among those who are infected with COVID- 19, from 1.57 percent to 1.87 percent. It is still lower compared to the average of 6.4 percent,” DOH – 7 said.
Read: Cebu Island’s COVID-19 cases hit 2,000
As of May 21, DOH-7’s records show that there are 2,297 documented cases of the infection with 141 recoveries and 43 deaths in Central Visayas, the area outside Metro Manila with the highest number of COVID-19 patients.
More than 14,000 swab samples from the region have been examined for the infection, including “repeat ones” or samples extracted from previously confirmed patients. / dcb