Death stalks Pampanga hospital, Bulacan jail during quarantine

ANGELES CITY—An 80-year-old man killed himself in his hospital room here on Thursday night, hours after he was informed that he tested positive for the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), police said.

The supposed suicide was the first of such case in this city that had listed 22 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Friday. At least 20 of the patients had recovered.

Police said the man was admitted to the hospital on June 13 due to pneumonia. His exposure to the virus was not known. He lived in a village outside the Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone.

Close to midnight on Thursday, the hospital staff forced open the door that was blocked with a table. The patient was found alone and dead in an apparent suicide.

The man’s immediate relatives did not say the possible reason for the suicide.

In May, the city government reported rescuing 16 homeless people with mental health problems. Mayor Carmelo Lazatin had them transferred to the Mariveles Mental Wellness and General Hospital for treatment.

Local police also averted a suicide attempt of a jobless man in March. The man tried to jump from the Abacan Bridge here because, he said, he had no more food to feed his family.

Bulacan inmates

In Bulacan province, 14 inmates at the provincial jail had died since May. The latest fatality, Zosimo Cachiro, 77, succumbed to a heart attack on Thursday. The 13 other inmates, age between 54 and 78, also died of lingering ailments.

A nurse at the jail said most of those who died did not receive their regular supply of food, vitamins and medicines from their families due to the ongoing community quarantine. The prisoners’ families had not been allowed to visit the inmates since the onset of the pandemic.

Retired Col. Marcos Rivero, jail warden, said that although the inmates’ common fund had been used up, they were still getting financial help from the provincial government. —TONETTE OREJAS AND CARMELA REYES-ESTROPE