THE Department of Health (DOH) announced 13 new cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the country Saturday evening, March 14, bringing the total count to 111.
These are on top of the 34 additional Covid-19 cases that the DOH announced Saturday afternoon.
The agency also confirmed earlier Saturday that three more patients had passed on. This brought the Covid-19 death toll in the Philippines to 8.
DOH Assistant Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said their teams were still validating the details on the new cases.
She assured that contact tracing is ongoing.
The DOH on Saturday morning announced that Patient 40, a 54-year-old Filipino male confined at the Northern Mindanao Medical Center (NMMC) in Cagayan de Oro City, had died from the disease.
Two other patients were reported on Saturday afternoon to have died, including one at the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Medical Center in San Fernando, Pampanga.
The patient at the NMMC died Friday evening, March 13, of acute respiratory distress syndrome due to severe pneumonia with concomitant acute kidney injury. He had no known recent travel history abroad.
Other patients who had died from the disease were: PH2, a 44-year-old Chinese male; PH5, a 62-year-old Filipino male; PH6, 59-year-old wife of PH5; PH35, 67-year-old Filipino woman whose husband is also a Covid-19 patient; and PH37, an 88-year-old Filipino woman.
PH5 and PH6 were the first two confirmed cases of local transmission in the country as they had no travel history outside the country. (NJN/SunStar Philippines)