The Department of Health (DOH) reported Sunday there have been 137 incidents of firework-related injuries during the New Year celebration.

The National Capital Region (NCR) recorded the most incidents of firework-related injuries while Bicol had the highest rise in incidents, DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said at a press briefing.

Seven regions have seen a decline in incidents including Central Luzon, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Ilocos Region, Calabarzon, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Vergeire said a majority of victims were males aged 10 to 14.

As for the type of injuries, 67 percent obtained blasts or burns without amputations, 30 percent have eye injuries and four percent had blasts or burns with amputations, she added.

In terms of location, most incidents happened outside home or in the streets at 71 percent, 62 percent happened at home, while one happened within the community display area.

Vergeire attributed this to the relaxing of COVID-19 restrictions.

In terms of cause, most were due to illegal fireworks at 48 percent.

The top three illegal firecrackers that caused injuries were boga at 19 percent, Five Star at 10 percent, and Super Lolo at six percent.

“We can prevent fireworks-related injuries through adult supervision and strict law enforcement in our communities,” Vergeire said.

For his part, Pangasinan Provincial Police Director Coronel Ronald Gayosaid there were two incidents of indiscriminate firing of firearms in Abra.

“With regards to our monitoring this whole time, the region (Cordillera Administrative Region) is generally peaceful. However, it’s unfortunate that there were two victims of stray bullets.''

''These two incidents happened in Abra. Police Brigadier General (Mafelina) Bazar has directed us to identify the people who fired their guns and caused harm to the two victims within 72 hours. We will keep focusing and monitoring this so we can resolve this incident,” Gayo said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS