The Health department on Thursday reported eight more fireworks-related injuries in Western Visayas, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon and the National Capital Region.
The injuries were recorded by sentinel hospitals from 6 a.m. on Wednesday until 5:59 a.m. on Thursday. Four cases were from Western Visayas, two from Cagayan Valley and one each from Central Luzon and NCR.
They involved males aged between two and 50 years who played with banned fireworks.
Six of the eight additional cases were reported on time. The victims suffered from burns without amputation, were given antibiotics and sent home after treatment.
Meanwhile, the remaining two cases were reported late. One was due to a blast injury that resulted in amputation and the other one was due to a blast injury with no amputation.
The Health department began its fireworks-related injuries surveillance on Friday, and to date there are now a total of 32 injuries recorded. These figure include the two cases of fireworks’ ingestion reported.
The six-year-old boy in Tondo, Manila, who ingested the contents of a firecracker remains confined at the Philippine General Hospital.
The department said the injuries reported were 50 percent less than in the same period last year and 77 percent lower than the five-year average.
There are eight injuries recorded in the National Capital Region, four in Central Luzon, nine in Western Visayas, four in Central Visayas, two in Zamboanga Peninsula and one in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Under Executive Order 28, the use of firecrackers must be confined to community fireworks displays to minimize the risk of injuries and casualties.
The DOH also warned the public against illegal fireworks such as the watusi, piccolo, atomic triangle, large Judas belt, large bawang, pillbox, boga, Goodbye Philippines, Bin Laden, mother rockets, lolo thunder, coke-in-can, kwitom, atomic bomb, five star, pla-pla, giant whistle bomb, kabasi and other unlabeled and imported firecrackers.
Among the banned fireworks, Boga caused the highest number of injuries followed by Kwitis, Piccolo and Triangle.