Five incidents of firecracker-related injuries were recorded in Antique from Dec. 21, 2021 to Jan. 5, 2022 monitoring period of the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO).
IPHO Health Officer 1, Dr. Leoncio Abiera Jr., said on Thursday four of the cases were considered as active or the victims were directly involved in the lighting of the firecracker while one is passive or the injury was accidentally obtained.
“Four of the victims were minors with only one adult,” Abiera said in an interview.
They obtained minor injuries and were sent home after they were treated in different hospitals.
“The injured persons were from the towns of San Jose de Buenavista with two and one each from the towns of Belison, San Remigio, and Sibalom,” he said.
Two of the cases were caused by “boga” (PVC cannon) and the rest were due to “Kamara”, “kwitis”, and “triangle”.
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Abiera said the number of firecracker injuries this holiday is higher by one case compared with last year’s four victims.
“The increase in cases this year could have been due to the excitement of the people to celebrate Christmas and New Year after having been on a pandemic for a long period of time,” he said.
Abiera said the increase in cases happened despite their active campaign with the other national government agencies like the Bureau of Fire Protection and Philippine National Police to have a safe and injury-free celebration.
The five firecracker injuries reported during the holiday, however, are lower than those in 2017 and 2018 where there were 10 cases each, and in 2019 with 17 cases.
Source: Philippines News Agency
