SAN PEDRO CITY –– The number of confirmed coronavirus cases (COVID-19) in Calabarzon has reached 562, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Wednesday.
Among the recently recorded COVID-19 cases are those of newborn infants.
A baby born on April 6 in Alaminos, Laguna has tested positive of the virus.
Municipal health officer Victoria Basilan said the child’s mother was Alaminos’ first suspected case, as she was an overseas Filipino worker from China, the country where the virus supposedly originated.
The mother showed no symptoms during her home quarantine from February 5 to 19 and was placed under monitoring until she gave birth in a private hospital in San Pablo City.
Basilan said the baby was tested after it showed some “respiratory symptoms.”
In Lipa City, Batangas, a girl born on April 3 also tested positive of the virus, Mayor Eric Africa said.
But Africa said the child’s mother, who is from Barangay Tipakan, had tested negative of the disease.
This bolstered the possibility that the newborn may have contracted the virus in a medical facility, similar to the 23-day-old infant from Barangay Lodlod also in Lipa City, who died due to COVID-19 on April 5.
Local health authorities said there was no evidence yet that the virus was passed on from the mother to her unborn child.
The DOH bulletin on April 14 showed that 71 of the 562 people in the region had died and 37 recovered.
Rizal has 178 cases with 24 deaths. Laguna has 164 infected with 13 deaths.
Cavite has 115 cases with 16 deaths; Batangas has 69 cases, out of which 13 had died; and Quezon has 36 cases with five deaths.