Newborn baby from General Santos City survives COVID-19

KORONADAL CITY—A newborn baby boy survives in a hospital here after his mother suspected of having COVID-19 died on May 5, only days after giving birth to him.

The newborn’s mother was one of two more suspected COVID-19 patients who recently died in Soccsksargen or Region 12, a Department of Health (DOH) official said Thursday.

Results of her swab tests were still pending but the other patient—a 70-year-old female from South Cotabato province who died of “acute respiratory failure secondary to acute hemorrhagic stroke” on April 28, turned out to be negative for COVID-19, according to Arjohn Gangoso, DOH-12 health education and promotion officer.

Gangoso said the 21-year-old mother from General Santos City died of acute respiratory failure days after giving birth to the boy.

“The mother showed symptoms of COVID-19 such as cough, sore throat and difficulty in breathing before she died,” he said in a phone interview. “She had the operation on May 2 but she developed the symptoms only on May 4,” Gangoso wrote in a text message.

He said the baby boy had been placed under observation and would be subjected to tests if he would show symptoms of the disease. But so far, the boy has been doing well, he said.

Health workers are still awaiting the laboratory results of the mother’s specimen.

Of the 29 suspected COVID-19 deaths in the region, 24 turned out to be negative, three were not tested while two, including that of the boy’s mother, still had pending results.

Gangoso said the boy’s mother and the other fatality had no recent travel histories to areas with known COVID-19 cases.

But both General Santos City and South Cotabato have confirmed COVID-19 patients who were earlier exposed to other areas with confirmed cases of infection, including Davao City.

In Zamboanga del Sur, the province’s COVID-19 Task Force is looking into the death of two babies with suspected COVID-19 infection.

Both the 11-month and the 5-month-old infants from Barangay Panubigan of the province’s Pitogo town were admitted at the Margosatubig Regional Hospital, according to Dr. Robert Capatoy, spokesperson of Zamboanga del Sur COVID-19 Task Force.

He said they were still awaiting the test results of both patients but any acute respiratory syndrome or similar diseases could be considered “possible symptoms” of COVID-19.

Capatoy reminded the general public not to be complacent and to be extra careful in the upcoming rainy season when cases of cough, flu and other viral infections were bound to rise.

“It would be harder for us [doctors] to differentiate the COVID-19 virus and other regular illnesses,” he said.

The 11-month-old baby died on Monday and diagnosed with pediatric community acquired pneumonia with severe acute gastroenteritis.

On Tuesday, the five-month-old baby followed. He died of sepsis from pediatric community-acquired severe pneumonia and acute respiratory failure.

Both were suspected for COVID-19 infection. The two patients were the 8th and 9th COVID-related case in the province.

JPV