5 more die from COVID-19-related deaths in Quezon province

LUCENA CITY –– Health authorities in Quezon province recorded five more deaths related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Tuesday.

In its 5 p.m. bulletin on Oct. 20, the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) disclosed that three individuals suspected of having COVID-19 and two other “probable” cases had died.

Authorities gave no other details about the five deaths or the cause of their demise.

The total number of fatalities in the province among the “suspects” now reached 131, while the list of mortalities among the “probables” now has 25.

A person is a “suspected” COVID-19 carrier if he/she shows symptoms two weeks after contact with a confirmed case or has visited a place with local transmission of the disease, according to the Department of Health (DOH) protocol.

Those who also exhibit COVID-19 symptoms and belong to the vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, those with preexisting ailments, pregnant women, and health-care workers also belong to this group.

Those who died categorized as suspected carriers had either not undergone a test or had been tested but the results were not yet out up to the time of death.

Health authorities consider an individual a “probable” case if his/her COVID-19 results are inconclusive, and he/she has been tested in an unofficial laboratory that does the confirmatory testing.

The IPHO reported that at least 357 “suspects” are still confined in hospitals and isolation centers in different parts of the province, and 336 others on home-quarantine are also being monitored.

At least 5,100 of the suspected carriers are already out of hospitals or finished home quarantine as of Tuesday afternoon.

Quezon, which remains under modified general community quarantine, has recorded 3,141 COVID-19 cases with the addition of 42 new confirmed virus carriers on Tuesday.

At least 27 of the new cases were recorded in Lucena, the capital city of the province, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in the city to 827, the highest among all localities in Quezon.

At least 2,000 recorded cases in Quezon have recovered, while 95 have died. The province still has 1,046 active virus carriers.

ZB