MANILA, Philippines — Along with a surge in COVID-19 cases, emergency rooms in Metro Manila hospitals are lately seeing “family clustering” of infections. Family clustering means the patients belong to the same family and among them are children. “I confirm we are experiencing an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases across all emergency departments or hospitals. Not only that, there is family clustering, which is unusual,” Dr. Pauline Convocar, president of the Philippine College of Emergency Medicine, said on Sunday. “We used to count individual cases. Now we see entire families going for consultation so that’s what is unusual nowadays,” she said. Most patients show mild to moderate symptoms and do not require admission, she added. For family clusters, children usually have mild symptoms while the elderly members of the household show moderate to severe symptoms. “I don’t have the numbers, but there are reports they are seeing pediatric cases so I think we need to also … [Read more...] about Families get hit as COVID-19 cases surge