Hours after the 68th Covid-19 fatality was reported in the Maldives, authorities have confirmed a second death from Covid-19.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) reported the Covid-19 fatality a little past 11:30pm on Friday.

The deceased has been identified as an 86-year-old man brought to the Emergency Room of Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) in an unresponsive state.

Doctors pronounced him dead at around 4pm on Friday.

This has been reported as the 69th Covid-19 death in the Maldives.

On Friday morning, HPA reported the 68th death from Covid-19 when a woman, age 82, who was admitted at the 11th floor of Dharumavantha Hospital, DH11 succumbed to complications of the virus. Doctors pronounced her dead at around 11:12am on Friday.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 21 lives in the Maldives thus far this ongoing year.

While this is the second Covid-19 fatality to have been reported this ongoing month, six Covid-19 fatalities were reported during March.

Authorities earlier stressed that Covid-19 fatalities had doubled in count since January 2021. As such, while four deaths were observed in January, the number increased to 10 during February.

With an alarming spike in case count over the past few months, hospitalizations had also increased in comparison to what was observed during the second Covid-19 wave in 2020. HPA earlier revealed that hospital admissions are currently lower than they were in mid-February, however, they were still higher in comparison to the hospital admissions recorded at the beginning of the ongoing year during March. Currently there are 53 Covid-19 patients hospitalized for treatment.