Quezon COVID-19 watch: Fatalities among coronavirus ‘suspects’ rise to 50

A worker in a protective suit, used due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, waits outside the crematorium facility as the cremation process takes some two hours in Manila on April 29, 2020. AFP FILE PHOTO

LUCENA CITY – At least two more individuals suspected of having contracted the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Quezon province have died, according to health authorities on Sunday afternoon (June 21).

In its 5 p.m. report, the Quezon public information office (QPIO), citing the latest data from the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO), reported that the total of fatalities among “suspects” reached 50. The figure was only 48 in the morning tally.

No details on the deaths were given.

According to the Department of Health (DOH), a person is considered a suspected carrier if he or she shows symptoms like fever, cough, or sore throat two weeks after contact with an infected person or persons or had traveled to a place where there is a case of infection.

Those with symptoms but belong to what is considered as a vulnerable segment of the population—elderly, those with preexisting health conditions, pregnant women, and health care workers—are also considered as coronavirus suspects.

The list of 50 “suspects” who died only covers the period from April 14 to the present.

From March 15 to April 13, the IPHO record showed 44 deaths under the then “person under investigation” (PUI) classification, which was replaced by the “suspect” category in the DOH reclassification.

The IPHO also recorded the deaths of 18 patients under “probable” classification also from April 14 to the present but gave no other details or even the cause of their demise.

An individual is a “probable” case if his/her COVID-19 results are inconclusive, and he/she has been tested in an unofficial laboratory.

Authorities in different parts of Quezon province still keep watch over 155 suspected virus carriers, all are confined in medical facilities, while another 111 remain under home quarantine.

Quezon, which is under general community quarantine, has recorded 146 COVID-19 cases as of Sunday afternoon. At least 107 of them have recovered while 10 have died.

The province now has 29 active virus carriers.

/MUF