5 Pinoys in Canada die of Covid-19

Garcia said the embassy cannot determine the total number of Filipinos infected with the disease in the entire Canada because aside from strict privacy law its federal and provincial government do not mention the nationalities in reports (File Photo)

MANILA – Five Filipinos in Canada have died from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), Philippine Ambassador Petronila Garcia said.

In a Laging Handa briefing on Tuesday, Garcia said one Filipino died by suicide but during autopsy was later found to be positive of the virus.

“Mayroon hong isang kaso kami na nag-suicide so his cause of death was suicide pero noong na post-mortem siya positive din ho siya sa Covid-19 (We have a case who died by suicide, so his cause of death was suicide, but in post-mortem he was found positive for Covid-19)” Garcia said.

Garcia said the embassy cannot determine the total number of Filipinos infected with the disease in the entire Canada because aside from strict privacy law its federal and provincial government do not mention the nationalities in reports.

She said the embassy or the Consulate General get information directly from the infected person or the kin.

Citing latest embassy data, Garcia said there are 225 Filipinos with Covid-19 in Calgary, 89 of whom have recovered.

At least 22 Filipinos were also infected with the virus in Toronto, six of whom recovered and one died.

The envoy assured that the Canadian government is providing treatment to all Covid-19 patients.

She also reported that Canada is slowly restarting its economy after declaring a state of emergency and imposing strict movement restrictions.

“As of yesterday, the state of emergency has been lifted in Ontario and tomorrow we expect the first stage of restarting the economy here in Ottawa,” she said.

There are around 930,000 Filipinos in Canada, of whom at least 880,000 are already permanent residents or Canadian citizens while the rest are temporary foreign workers.