Delta variant death toll rises to 3 with demise of patient in Antique

(FILE) Workers in protective suits, used due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, wait outside a crematorium facility as the cremation process takes some two hours in Manila on April 29, 2020. (Photo by Maria TAN / AFP)

MANILA, Philippines — Three COVID-19 patients with the Delta variant in the country have died, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday after confirming the death of one of the patients in Antique.

“Yes, [there are] three deaths among 35 Delta cases: (one each) from MV Athens, City of Manila, and Antique,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told INQUIRER.net in a text message.

In a Viber message to reporters, Vergeire said the fatalities are a 63-year-old male seafarer from the MV Athens who died on May 19; a 78-year old woman from Baybay, Antique, who died on May 30; and, a 58-year-old woman from Pandacan, Manila who died on June 28.

Antique has recorded two local cases of the Delta variant. On Saturday, Dr. Ma. Sophia Pulmones, Chief of the Local Health Support Division of the Western Visayas Center for Health Development, said that a 78-year-old patient with the variant in Antique died last May.

But the DOH said that it was still confirming this information as of Saturday.

On Friday, the DOH announced 16 new cases of the Delta variant, composed of five cases detected from returning overseas Filipinos and 11 that were detected locally. Vergeire said that of the 11 local cases, two were from Antique, five from Cagayan de Oro, one from Misamis Oriental, and three are from the City of Manila.

EDV