DOH records 17,145 Covid cases in just 5 days. However, as of February 2021, CWC noted that 48,411 at age 19 and below tested positive for COVID-19, and 1,342 died.
The Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) confirmed that 1,342 of the almost 50,000 Filipino children who caught COVID-19 died. The Department of Health announced on Monday that the Philippines recorded 17,145 new COVID-19 cases from August 29 to September 4.
Normina Mojica, head of the CWC Policy, Planning, and Research Division noted that as of February 2021, 48,411 children aged 19 and below tested positive for COVID-19. Of this, 1,342 pediatric patients died. The previous week had 2,448 cases on average every day. The amount was 10 percent lower than the number of cases recorded in the previous week, the Philippine Star reported.
Mojica said the 48,411 pediatric COVID cases, about 40.2 percent of the patients are between the ages of 15 - 20; 23.8 percent are between the ages of 10 - 14; 17.4 percent are aged ages of 5 - 9; and 18.5 percent are under the age of 4.
The speaker also mentioned that 31.4 percent, or one in three kids who contracted COVID-19, were considered to be living in poverty.
“Filipino children are vulnerable to issues such as mortality, health, education, violence and abuse, forced labor,” Mojica said during the meeting of the House committee on the welfare of children.
She noted that “under a host of environmental issues bigger than they are, children are adversely affected by poverty in many ways.”
After this period, DOH records no longer contained pediatric cases of COVID-19 but its vaccination accomplishments.
Meanwhile, the DOH said that it will use "vaccination counseling" in schools in an effort to encourage more parents to have their kids immunized against COVID-19.
“We are always in close coordination with the Department of Education (DepEd), and included in our strategies is encouraging parents to have their kids vaccinated, as well as teachers who remain unvaccinated,” DOH OIC Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
She explained that these counseling sessions can be one-on-one or that local officials may assist in persuading parents to have their children vaccinated.
Vergeire said they have observed that the situation at schools is "so far, so good" and that health protocols are being followed with regard to the resumption of face-to-face classes. Since the start of in-person classes, there are very minimal cases of children getting sick since in-person classes started.
The DoH said vaccination of students against COVID-19 will not take place inside classrooms and can be held anywhere on the school’s premises, with mobile vaccination also an option.
“Vaccination will continue. The DOH together with DepEd is just clarifying that classrooms will only be used by the students for their classes,” Vergeire said.
The latest data showed that there were 2,529 critical care unit beds occupied at a rate of 23.5 percent, while 30.9 percent of non-ICU beds were in use.
Over 72.6 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. However, only 18.2 million people have received their first booster dose, while 2.3 million have received their second booster.
Meanwhile, the DOH verified 354 fatalities last week. Of those, 108 deaths occurred from August 22 to September 4.
DOH said, totaling 40 of the new cases had severe and critical illnesses.
A total of 768 patients were in severe and critical conditions, representing 10.1 percent of total COVID-19 admissions in the country.
DOH noted the severe and critical cases are decreasing slowly.
Tags: #DOH, #COVID-19, #CWC