A 106-year-old Bahraini man died from complications caused by Covid-19 yesterday.
The centenarian has become the oldest fatality in the country, as death toll from the virus stands at 562 until last night.
A 99-year-old Bahraini man who died on February 6 was the oldest Covid-19 fatality until yesterday.
The youngest was a 20-year-old expat woman who died on March 24.
Four more deaths were recorded yesterday – two Bahraini women aged 67 and 35, a Bahraini man, 67 and an expatriate man, 74.
The virus has claimed 41 lives this month (April 1 to 12) – an average of more than three deaths per day, which is the highest since the beginning of the year.
Seventy-two people died of Covid-19 last month, an average of more than two deaths a day.
February recorded 74 deaths – the highest since the onset of the pandemic last year.
It was on March 16 last year that Bahrain witnessed the first Covid-19 death. The 65-year-old Bahraini woman had contracted the virus while outside the country and had underlying chronic health conditions.
Among the 41 deaths in April, 35 were citizens and six expatriates, which include 21 women and 20 men. Of the 35 Bahrainis, 19 are women and 16 men, and of the six expats two are women and four men.
The month recorded two more days with the highest daily toll of five deaths each – April 4 and 5 (other than yesterday). The 10 deaths included nine Bahrainis – four women and five men and one expatriate woman. Twenty of the total fatalities were recorded in five days.
Of the total deaths this month, 24 were aged above 60 (58.73 per cent), while 17 were 60 years and below (41.46pc).
Of the 562 deaths, 415 were Bahrainis (74pc), while 147 were expats (26pc). This includes 191 women (173 citizens and 18 expats) and 371 men (242 citizens and 129 expats).
Bahrain’s Covid-19 death rate stands at 0.35pc alongside a high recovery rate of almost 93pc.
The number of active cases crossed 10,000 last week forming more than 7pc of the total cases.
Meanwhile, daily cases of coronavirus in the kingdom peaked this month with the highest number registered on April 3 – 1,316 cases.
A total of 12,017 new Covid-19 cases were recorded in 11 days, from April 1 until Sunday, making an average of 1,092 cases daily.
More than 65pc of these are Bahrainis (7,875), while around 30pc are (3,696) expatriates. The remaining almost 5pc (446) are travel-related cases.
Authorities said last week that infection rates among citizens were high and family gatherings were blamed for the spike.
All five clusters released by the Health Ministry last week were from Bahraini family gatherings, with the highlight being a one-year-old girl infecting 14 within her own family.
Bahrain has conducted more than 3.7 million Covid-19 PCR tests until Sunday – 198,605 from April 1 until Sunday, making a daily average of 18,055 tests.
The GDN earlier reported that aggressive testing was among measures being adopted by the Health Ministry, as part of its ‘trace, track and treat’ strategy.
The ministry also conducts random testing on people, while public can call the health hotline 444 to get themselves checked. Free tests have also been organised in malls, public places and through mobile units. Private healthcare facilities offer paid testing options in the country.
Bahrain registered the first case of Covid-19 on February 25 last year when a 28-year-old Bahraini school driver who returned from Iran tested positive.
raji@gdn.com.bh
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