THE Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday reported a total of 832 cases of firecracker-related injuries during the last Christmas holidays.The cases were recorded from Dec. 22, 2024, to 6 a.m. on Jan. 5.In a post on Facebook, the DOH said 36 new cases of firework-related injuries were recorded on New Year's Eve, 10 on Jan. 1, and 15 on the days leading to Jan. 5.The figure is 37 percent higher than the previous year, it said.The DOH said there were four deaths during the holiday revelry. Three were from firework-related injuries, and one was from a stray bullet.The latest death recorded was a 54-year-old man from Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon).The DOH said that 491 of the 832 injured by pyrotechnics were 19 years old and younger, while 341 were more than 20 years old.It said 685 of the injured were males, and 147 were females.The DOH said the data collected were from sentinel sites it was monitoring for firecracker-related injuries.
