Baguio COVID-19 death in April already a fourth of city’s total

Based on the data from the Baguio City Health Services Office (BCHSO), as of Wednesday, April 14, there have been 170 COVID-19 deaths recorded here, which is 1.86% of the current total of 9,045 confirmed cases.

This means that in every 1000 individuals positive of the coronavirus disease, there were 19 deceased cases.

Forty-two or 24.71% of these cases were reported in the first half of April 2021, which is the highest recorded number of deaths in a month in this city since March 2020. And there are 15 more days left this month.

April’s total so far is more than 24.7% or a fourth of the total COVID-19 deaths in the city.

Dr Bernard Demot, medical officer of the Baguio General Hospital, said that most of the deaths were caused by the patients not reporting to the hospital on time.

“By the time they come to us, they already had the symptoms for a week or more,” he said.

During the first two weeks of April, there was only a day that the city did not report a death caused by COVID.

In addition, the highest percentage of deaths per day was recorded last April 9, with 9 (30%) deaths out of 30 reported cases.

The mean days from onset date or date of collection to the date of death was 10.92 or 11 days with a standard deviation of 15.01 days. This means that, on average, the patients were swabbed 6 to 16 days before they die.

Seventeen patients (40.48%), or almost half of the 42 deceased cases, belong to the 60 to 69 age group. Most of them were 64 years old.

The next age group with the most deaths are the 70 to 79 with 8 deaths.

There were also 14 asymptomatic patients and 3 individuals who were declared dead-on-arrival (DOA). Seven of them were close contacts of COVID-19 patients. Four (4) out of the 42 patients were declared as recovered but eventually died within approximately 1 to 7 days after recovery.

For the distribution of the 42 deaths per barangay, there were 30 barangays identified. Barangays General Emilio F. Aguinaldo (Quirino-Magsaysay, Lower), Pacdal, Pinsao Proper, Honeymoon (Honeymoon-Holy Ghost) had 3 reported deaths each.

Meanwhile, barangays Bakakeng North, Irisan, Imelda Village, and Quezon Hill Proper had 2 reported deaths each.

As of April 15, Cordillera recorded 383 deaths. Baguio accounted for 44% while Benguet which had 125 deaths accounted for 32%. – Rappler.com