2-yr-old boy, Bohol’s youngest COVID-19 patient, dies 24 hours after testing positive for coronavirus

TAGBILARAN CITY—Bohol province’s youngest COVID-19 patient, a two-year-old boy, died of the disease on Wednesday (Aug. 19), barely 24 hours after he tested positive for SARS Cov2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Dr. Cesar Tomas Lopez, spokesperson of the Bohol Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, said the boy died at the Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital (GCGMH) in Tagbilaran City at 6 a.m.

The boy, he said, had microcephaly, or a condition where the head is smaller than usual, and was suffering from severe malnutrition.

He was intubated at the hospital and given medication but eventually died.

The boy, the second COVID-19 patient in Buenavista town, was the seventh fatality in Bohol.

Buenavista Mayor Dave Duallo said the community of Nangka at the village of Putingbato, where the boy’s family lived, was put on lockdown as contact tracing was launched for people who have had encounters with the boy.

Bohol currently has 131 cases of COVID-19 with 101 recoveries and now seven fatalities.

The boy was among seven patients who tested positive for the virus on Tuesday (Aug. 18).

His case was announced on Facebook by Gov. Arthur Yap, who said on his post that the boy was suffering from fever at the time he was taken to the hospital.

Authorities had said the boy’s case could be one of local transmission as he had not been to any other place.

TSB