PH death toll rises to 19,983; infections now 1,184,706
ONE of the nine Filipino crewmen of the MV Athens Bridge afflicted with the India variant (B.1.167) of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has died, the first local fatality of the strain first found in India, according to the Department of Health.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire, in an online briefing, said the male seafarer passed away last Friday, May 21, at the ManilaMed hospital where he had been confined along with three other crew members being treated for the deadly virus.
Vergeire said the eight other crew members of the MV Athens, which is currently docked at Sangley Point in Cavite, have either recovered or are recovering.
“For the crew members of MV Athens Bridge, among the four confined, one died last week. I think that was Friday. The three others are already recovering while still at the hospital,” said Vergeire.
“The rest of the crew members are already tagged as recovered and are set to be released to their local government units, where they will continuously be monitored,” she added.
Vergeire said the fatality, a 63-year-old originally from Tarlac who has a current address in Parañaque City, had hypertension. No other detail has been released by the DOH.
The MV Athens Bridge, a container vessel manned by a 21 all-Filipino crew, left India on April 22 and arrived in Haiphong, Vietnam, on May 1, where 12 of the crew members tested positive for COVID-19. Of the 12, nine were found to have the strain first found in India.
After the vessel reached the Philippines, Four of the nine were admitted at the ManilaMed hospital while the other five were sent to an isolation facility.
The strain has been spotted in 44 countries, including the United Kingdom, United States and Singapore, and prompted the World Health Organization to designate it as a variant of concern, meaning it’s considered a global threat.
Vergeire said contact tracing done by the DOH on other Filipinos who had been infected with the India variant have yielded promising results.
Vergeires said the close contacts of the 58-year-old Filipino male from the United Arab Emirates showed no cases of the India variant.
“Of the 34 close contacts, 3 were positive, while 31 were negative. Of the 3 positive cases, there were no variants of concerns detected,” Vergeire said. “All 3 of them have also been tagged as recovered already as they have completed the isolation period of 14 days.”
The nine close contacts of a 37-year-old Filipino male from Oman who was also infected with the India variant also tested negative for COVID-19.
“All of them have negative swab results as of May 5,” said Vergeire.
She said the last B.1.167 case, a Filipino seafarer from Belgium, is still closely being monitored at a quarantine facility.
“We didn’t find any co-passenger of the patient that is positive for COVID-19,” Vergeire said.
Meanwhile, 39 more patients also lost their battle with COVID-19 while 4,973 new cases were reported by the DOH, raising the number of infections in the country to 1,184,706.
The figures don’t include numbers from six laboratories that failed to submit data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System (CDRS) last May 22.
In its latest bulletin, the DOH said the death toll from the deadly virus rose to 19,983, just 17 short of the grim mark of 20,000, for a case fatality rate of 1.69.
Active cases dipped to 48,917, with 92.9 percent mild cases, 2.1 percent severe cases, 2 percent asymptomatic cases, 1.6 percent critical cases, and 1.4 percent moderate cases.
The DOH said the total number of recoveries in the country rose to 1,115,806 after 6,666 more recovered.
The number of overseas Filipinos who contracted the deadly virus continued to climb with 38 more new cases, bringing the total number of infections overseas to 18,697. — With Ashzel Hachero
