Maldives’ COVID-19 death toll rises to 157

A patient admitted to Dharumavantha Hospital in Male’ has passed away.

The patient – an 86-year-old Maldivian male – passed away at 05:35 am on Saturday.

He was being treated in the Intensive Care Unit on the 11th floor of Dharumavantha Hospital.

This marks the 157th COVID-19 death in Maldives.

Maldives has been experiencing a surge in both infection rate and fatalities in recent weeks.

This May has seen the highest number of COVID-19 fatalities in Maldives, with over 80 deaths.

Maldives has 61,844 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 901 new cases recorded on Friday. 36,862 patients have since recovered.

The country currently has 24,818 active cases. 252 of the patients are hospitalized.

With the surge in positive cases and their contacts, health authorities have abandoned tracing all contacts and decided to limit contact tracing in the greater Male’ area to high-risk contacts.

Meanwhile, new restrictions have kicked-in at the capital, and curfews have been imposed in all residential islands outside the capital placed under monitoring.