A TWO-YEAR-OLD girl landed in the hospital after her sibling put "luces" in her mouth on New Year's eve.
She was placed under observation at the UST Hospital and later sent home.
The girl was the first case of fireworks ingestion reported by the Department of Health (DOH).
Based on the Fireworks-Related Injury Surveillance 2019 Report No. 13, the number of firecracker-related injuries has now exceeded the 2019 data.
There were 340 firecracker-related injuries reported as of 6 a.m. Friday, January 3.
"This year's cases is 15 cases (5.0 percent) increase when compared to the same time period in 2018 (325)," said the DOH.
Of those injured, the DOH said 245 sustained blast/burn injuries not requiring amputation, 84 had eye injuries, and 14 had blast/burn injuries requiring amputation.
Hands remained the most injured body part with 114 cases, followed by eyes with 84, and head with 42.
Legal fireworks kwitis (76), luces (38), and fountain (35) were found to be the top causes of injuries, while previous topnotcher piccolo, which is an illegal firecracker, accounted for 19 cases.
Half of the injuries happened in the National Capital Region with 169, followed by Western Visayas with 36, Ilocos Region with 29, and Calabarzon with 23.
In Metro Manila, most of the cases were from the City of Manila (53), followed by Quezon City (34), and Caloocan City (12).
Seven in 10 victims of firecrackers were male with 246 (72 percent).
The DOH report also pointed out that nearly three in every five or 199 cases (59 percent) involved passive users, or those not using firecrackers, while 141 others were active firecracker users.
There were neither cases of stray bullet injury nor deaths reported due to firecracker-related injuries. (HDT/SunStar Philippines)