Two people succumbed to Covid-19 over the weekend, bringing Bermuda’s death toll from the illness to 14.

Kim Wilson, the health minister, said she was “deeply saddened” to report the first deaths from the coronavirus since one person in early January.

Ms Wilson gave “sincere condolences” on behalf of the Government and people of Bermuda.

She added: “The ministry will not release personal details about the individuals and ask the public to respect the privacy of the families as they mourn their loved ones.”

In a Tweet, the Premier David Burt said: “The Minister of Health has announced that #Bermuda recorded 2 additional #COVID19 deaths. The thoughts & prayers of the Government are with both of the families as they mourn their loved ones. Today’s deaths bring the total # of residents who have succumbed to COVID-19 to 14. -DB”

Twitter

It came after it was announced on Saturday that 18 people were being treated in hospital for Covid-19, with four in critical care.

A further 108 people were found positive for the coronavirus over two days of testing, bringing the island’s active cases to 630.

Of those in hospital, the mean age of all hospitalised cases is 60 with the youngest in the 20-29-year-old age group and the oldest being over 80. None of the people in hospital are fully immunised, meaning having had two vaccine doses with the second dose more than two weeks prior to hospitalisation.

Ms Wilson said: “Our hospitalised Covid-19 patients are rising, and that is very disturbing.

“We need to all make sure that we are doing our best to stop the spread and stay in our bubbles.

“There are quite a number of clusters of cases identified by the case management team. This very much reflects the contagious nature of the UK variant.

“Please be patient with our contact tracers as they aim to contact the increased number of persons confirmed with Covid-19 and their close contacts.

“If a friend or colleague has told you that they have tested positive and you are a close contact, please do not wait until the contact tracer contacts you. Put yourself in quarantine.

“I also want to remind parents of children who are in quarantine to work with the Ministry of Health. The Ministry of Health assesses all test results.

“Negative test results by a particular child or teacher will not automatically mean release from quarantine. The Ministry will inform the school directly who may be released from quarantine and when.

“The vast majority of parents are co-operating in this challenging situation, but some are less co-operative and question the guidance provided by medical and public health professionals.

“Please remember the safety of the entire island is paramount, and our public health measures are in place to protect the community. Please be patient.”

The latest results are from testing that took place on Wednesday, with 70 positive out of 1,865 test results received and testing on Thursday where there were 38 positive out of 1,474.

Twenty-two of the new cases are classified as local transmission with known contact as they are associated with known cases.

The additional 86 new cases are classified as under investigation. These cases are among residents with no currently identified link to other known cases or history of travel in the past 14 days.

Additionally, since the last update, there were 15 recoveries.

There are currently 630 active cases, of which;

· 612 are under public health monitoring and;

· 18 are in the hospital, with four in critical care.

Since March 2020, Bermuda has recorded 1,400 total confirmed cases of Covid-19; out of those, 758 have recovered, and 12 have succumbed to Covid-19.

The mean age of all confirmed positive cases is 41 years (median: 39 years), and the ages range from less than one year to greater than 100 years.

The mean age of all currently active cases is 40 years (median: 39 years), and the ages range from less than ten years (age group: 0-9 years) to greater than 80 years (age group: 80-100 years).

The mean age of all hospitalised cases is 60 years (median: 57 years), and the ages range from less than 30 years (age group: 20-29 years) to greater than 80 years (age group: 80-100 years). None of the hospitalised cases includes people who are fully immunised (having had two vaccine doses with the 2nd dose more than two weeks prior to hospitalisation)

The mean age of all deceased cases is 75 years (median: 77 years), and the ages range from less than 60 years (age group: 50-59 years) to greater than 80 years (age group: 80-100 years).

The source of all cases is as follows:

· 245 are imported

· 901 are classified as local transmission of which:

o 809 are local transmission with known contact/source and

o 92 are local transmission with an unknown contact/source

· 254 are under investigation

A spokeswoman for the Health Ministry said: “As investigations proceed, transmission categories may change. Today’s update has 23 cases moving from under investigation to local transmission with known contact/source.”

Of the over 200,000 test results reported, the mean age of all persons tested is 43 years (median: 42 years), and the ages range from less than one year to greater than 100 years.

The seven-day average of our real-time reproduction number is 1.72.

Bermuda’s current WHO country status is ’community transmission’.

Since March 19, there have been 56 emergency room visits associated with the current outbreak among people with Covid-19.

* We have decided to take comments off and stop further comments as too many are not meeting our terms and conditions.