Health Protection Agency (HPA) on late Wednesday evening confirmed the death of an 88-year old Maldivian male while undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at Dharumavantha Hospital.
This is the fourth virus-related fatality recorded in the Maldives. HPA did not provide any further details of the deceased.
Speaking at National Emergency Operations Center's (NEOC) virtual press conference held Wednesday evening, HPA's Epidemiologist Dr Ibrahim Afzal highlighted ongoing efforts to conduct random sampling from the elderly population. He also noted the importance of conducting such tests to ascertain the prevalence of the virus in the age demographic. However, Dr Afzal said that certain individuals were hesitant and had denied getting tested.
Capital city Malé, one of the most densely populated places in the world, has recorded a significant increase in COVID-19 cases since recording its first local transmission on April 15.
Maldives recorded its first COVID-19 death, of an 83-year-old local female, on April 29. Since, two more individuals, a 33-year-old Bangladeshi man and a local 80-year-old man, have succumbed to the virus.
On March 12, 2020, the World Health Organization classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 4.39 million people and claimed over 295,700 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, 1.63 million people have recovered.
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