Health officials could not yet confirm if the three dead persons under investigation (PUI) are positive of COVID-19.
Dr. Anabelle Yumang, the regional director of Department of Health (DOH), said in a Facebook live press conference that the laboratory confirmatory results of those mortalities have yet to arrive from the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine so they could not confirm yet.
Yumang said the three fatalities had travel histories and pre-existing illnesses.
Yumang said the 78-year-old fatality had history of travel in Australia.
The said patient arrived in the Philippines on Feb. 17 and had developed COVID-19 symptoms on March 14.
This patient, according to Yumang, already had a pre-existing stage four bladder cancer. In his death certificate, it was noted that the cause of its death was due to uremic sepsis secondary to complicated urinary tract infection.
Another fatality, a 71-year-old patient had travelled Laguna and Manila.
The patient arrived in Davao City on March 9.
Yumang said the patient’s complain was epigastric pain with shortness of breath. Its comorbidity is that it already had a perforated peptic ulcer disease. Yumang said the Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) performed an operation to the said patient due to its ulcer disease.
She said that this patient was from a private hospital but was then transferred to SPMC upon recommendation. Recorded cause of death was due to septic shock secondary to generalized peritonitis, and secondary to perforated peptic ulcer disease.
The third case, a Korean national, 68, had a travel history in Riyadh and in Manila.
He arrived in the Philippines on March 9, and developed symptoms on March 12. The said patient experienced fever, cough, and chills.
The cause of his death was not clearly stated during the conference.
Based on their recent COVID-19 Davao Region report as of 6 p.m. on Thursday, there are currently 96 PUIs in the region, 34 of which are already discharged while the other 59 individuals are still admitted.
Persons under monitoring reached a number of 5,403. There are already 584 patients who are cleared and 4,818 who are still under observation.
Only one confirmed COVID-19 positive case is recorded by the DOH in Davao Region. The DOH said the 21-year-old female is now in stable condition, without fever anymore. She is now waiting for her test results for confirmation if she already is negative from the virus.
Intensified contact tracing has been implemented by the health department to ensure that people in close contact with the infected will be examined and monitored.
Meanwhile, DOH XI undersecretary Abdullah Dumama, Jr. said that 100 testing kits were already provided here in the city.
However, Dr. Ricardo Audan, SPMC chief of clinics, said that only 80 test kits are available in their hospital. He said this is because these test kits should be validated first before handing it out to hospitals.
He said that as there are only very few test kits that are available as of the moment, these will only be limited for PUIs who are qualified for the criteria set by SPMC to test them if they are one confirmed case of COVID-19.
