BRIDGETOWN, Barbados- Barbados health authorities said that the number of deaths linked to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has risen to 374 after an additional 43 deaths over the last six months.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness said that the deaths were discovered after the Coroner’s Office conducted COVID-19 testing on persons who died suddenly in the community.
“The test results from the Coroner’s Office have identified an additional 43 COVID-19-related deaths, which occurred over the last six months. These persons died in the community before being tested or accessing appropriate care. The total number of COVID-19-related deaths, therefore, as of March 28, 2022, stands at 374,” according to an official statement issued here.
The positive results were obtained from tests carried out by the Coroner’s Office on the suspicion that their “sudden demise may have been attributed to COVID-19.
“The policy of the Coroner’s Office is to rule out COVID-19 as the likely cause of death since autopsies cannot be performed on persons who are known to have died from or with COVID-19. It must, however, be noted that, in all cases, the primary cause of death may not have been COVID-19, but this diagnosis was found at the time of death,” the statement said.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness said that it sought to provide the public “with accurate information related to COVID-19 to ensure that informed choices are made in the interest of everyone’s health”.
The authorities said that the island recorded 218 new COVID-19 cases, including 12 females, from the 1,043 tests conducted on Tuesday.
They said that the positive cases consisted of 45 persons under 18 and 173 who were 18 years and older. A total of 47 people were in isolation facilities, while 1,175 were in home isolation.
The public health laboratory has carried out 611,269 tests since February 2020 and recorded 59,080 COVID-19 cases, including 27,383 males.
Under the National Vaccination Programme for COVID-19, the total number of persons with at least one dose is 161,089, or 70.5 percent of the eligible population).
The total number of fully vaccinated persons is 151,097 or 55.8 percent of the total population or 66.2 percent of the eligible population.
The authorities said that the eligible population represents those persons who are 12 years and older.
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