Maldives’ COVID-19 death toll rises to 158

Health Protection Agency (HPA) confirmed an additional COVID-19 fatality on Saturday.

HPA identified the deceased as a 77-year-old Maldivian male.

He was brought to the B. Atoll Hospital and was declared dead at 06:00 pm.

“This is the 158th COVID-19 death in the Maldives,” announced HPA.

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 62,906 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 1,062 new cases recorded on Saturday. 38,233 patients have since recovered.

The country currently has 24,507 active cases. 240 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.