67-year-old woman in Manila is first Filipino COVID-19 fatality

MANILA, Philippines (Corrected 10:55 p.m.) — A COVID-19 patient confined at the Manila Doctors Hospital in Manila has died, the Department of Health confirmed late Wednesday night.

"The Department of Health confirms circulating reports regarding the death of a confirmed COVID-19 patient," the DOH said, adding that the patient was ID PH35.

PH35 was a 67-year-old Filipina with no travel history nor history of exposure to the novel coronavirus. 

She first reported symptoms on February 29 and tested positive on March 11.

PH35 was among the 16 new cases that the DOH announced earlier Wednesday.

She is the first Filipino COVID-19 fatality in the Philippines.

"DOH is currently gathering and validating more information on the reported death," the department also said.

It said it would provide further details when they are available.

It also urged the public to "follow DOH's official accounts and to only source information on the COVID-19 health situation from official DOH channels."

This is a developing story.

(Editor's note: An earlier version of this article reported that Patient PH35 died on Thursday. This has been corrected to Wednesday.)