Fourth covid19 death confirmed

Image courtesy CDC

The Ministry of Health has confirmed that a fourth person has died of the covid19 virus.

The news came in a release sent at 10.29 pm from the ministry.

It said 583 samples have been sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), with 89 positive results.

For some time before the release was sent, rumour was rife on social media that a fourth person, a woman, had succumbed to the virus.

The fourth patient to die was an elderly woman with a pre-existing medical condition.

The release stated that two additional positive cases have been confirmed. The first case is someone with no history of recent travel or contact with a positive case.

The second has been in contact with people with a history of recent travel.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said that as of 10 am, 553 samples had been tested by CARPHA, 85 came back positive for the virus, there had been three deaths and one person had been discharged.

Six hours later, in its daily 4 pm update, the ministry said 87 people had tested positive but there were no changes to the fatality and discharge figures.

It also announced on Tuesday afternoon that it would hold a press conference daily for the rest of the week as well as issuing updates at approximately 10 am, 4 pm and 10 pm.

As of 10.30 pm on Tuesday, according to the Worldometer website, there were 858,669 infections, 42,151 deaths and 178,099 patients recovering. The US led the world in terms of infections and deaths at 188,530 and 3,889 respectively.