Lives Lost: Parents hoped baby Kobe would play basketball

To Ronnel Manjares and Trisha May Noche, he was Kobe Christ, their second child.Noche wanted her son to grow up playing basketball, just like his father. With the help of a traditional birth attendant, Kobe was born on April 12 in the shack near a construction area that his parents already shared with their baby daughter.Manjares said the delivery went smoothly and that his newborn son “looked healthy and fit.” Noche was happy 15-month-old Crystal now had a brother. Video footage recorded that day shows Kobe in his father’s arms and surrounded by cheering health workers, some carrying signs reading “COVID-19 survivor” and “I Beat COVID-19.” The two would need to spend 14 days in quarantine at another hospital, but a relieved Manjares already looked beyond the confinement period. Data provided by the Philippines Department of Health showed that as of July 23, there have been 272 COVID-19 cases among infants, 12 of whom have died.Lockdown restrictions prevented Manjares from going to the hospital to see his son’s body and comfort Kobe’s mother.