Mere hours af­ter the Min­istry of Health an­nounced the na­tion's fourth death from the COVID-19 virus came news Wednes­day morn­ing of a fifth death.

In its dai­ly up­date, the min­istry said the virus had claimed the life of an­oth­er el­der­ly man who had a pre-ex­ist­ing med­ical con­di­tion.

The min­istry did not of­fer any fur­ther de­tails but the pa­tient was from among those who were be­ing treat­ed on Tues­day as the to­tal num­ber of pos­i­tive cas­es did not move from the overnight 89.

The min­istry added that to date, 586 sam­ples had been sent for test­ing.

On Tues­day night, an el­der­ly woman who al­so had pre-ex­ist­ing med­ical con­di­tions died at the Cou­va Hos­pi­tal. She was the first fe­male death.

The first three vic­tims were all el­der­ly men over 70, ac­cord­ing to Chief Med­ical Of­fi­cer Roshan Paras­ram.