The na­tion­al death toll for COVID-19 has risen again, fol­low­ing the pass­ing of two more pa­tients—both el­der­ly males, one of whom had no pre-ex­ist­ing med­ical con­di­tions.

Ac­cord­ing to this morn­ing’s up­date from the Min­istry of Health, Their deaths bring the na­tion­al death toll for the dis­ease to 81.

In ad­di­tion, the Min­istry re­ports that 26 ad­di­tion­al per­sons have test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19, bring­ing the na­tion­al to­tal for ac­tive cas­es to 1,817.

The Min­istry as­sures these 26 new pa­tients will be processed for ad­mis­sion, at the dis­cre­tion of the CMOHs, in ac­cor­dance with es­tab­lished pro­to­col.

In oth­er high­lights from the Min­istry’s first re­port for to­day, Sun­day 4 Oc­to­ber 2020:

● 34 com­mu­ni­ty cas­es pa­tients have re­cov­ered from COVID-19, i.e. those per­sons who were pre­vi­ous­ly COVID-19 pos­i­tive and in self-iso­la­tion at home and sub­se­quent­ly met the dis­charge cri­te­ria and were re­leased from self-iso­la­tion.

● 110 COVID-19 pos­i­tive pa­tients are still hos­pi­talised, with the ma­jor­i­ty based at the Cou­va Hos­pi­tal and Mul­ti-Train­ing Fa­cil­i­ty (69 per­sons) and Cau­ra Hos­pi­tal (30 per­sons).

● Eleven COVID-19 pos­i­tive pa­tients are re­cov­er­ing at step-down/tran­si­tion fa­cil­i­ties: three in To­ba­go, and eight at UWI Debe cam­pus.