MANILA — The Department of Health on Tuesday confirmed that the youngest COVID-19 fatality in the Philippines is an infant from Batangas province.

“Ang pinakabata pong pumanaw dahil sa COVID-19 ay isang 29-day-old mula sa Batangas,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said during a televised DOH briefing.

(The youngest fatality for COVID-19 is a 29-day-old from Batangas.)

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Vergeire said the male infant was brought to the hospital because he had trouble breathing or shortness of breath. It was then that he was diagnosed with pneumonia.

“At ang kanyang ikinamatay ay late onset sepsis dulot ng severe respiratory infection,” she said.

(He died because of late onset sepsis due to severe respiratory infection.)

ABS-CBN News reported on Monday that a new entry in the DOH COVID-19 tracker website included male fatality who was in the range of 0 to 4 years old.

While the DOH has halted issuing information on individual patients, its new COVID-19 tracker website includes one male fatality who is 0 to 4 years old. @ABSCBNNews pic.twitter.com/W5GhlZtlcl

— Kristine Sabillo (@kristinesabillo) April 13, 2020

Vergeire said the DOH cannot share further details because of privacy laws.

Sepsis, which is an extreme response to infection, was often cited as a cause of death in the previous fatality cases reported by the DOH.

Before the 29-day-old infant, the youngest fatality in the Philippines was a 7-year-old girl from Pangasinan who died due to hypovolemic shock caused by acute gastroenteritis and severe dehydration.

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As of Tuesday, there were 5,223 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines. While the number of recoveries have picked up, there are still more deaths reported. Of the more than 5,000 cases, 335 have died and 295 have recovered.

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