YANGON—Myanmar reported its seventh death from COVID-19 on Friday—the first in four months—amid an ongoing surge in infections that has taken the country’s total to 1,133 cases.
A 46-year-old woman from Yangon’s Thanlyin Township who had been treated at the Waibargi Infectious Disease Hospital since testing positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, died on Thursday night, becoming the country’s seventh COVID-19 fatality.
The Myanmar Ministry of Health and Sports (MOHS) said the patient, designated as COVID-19 case No. 1,023, suffered from psoriatic arthritis as an underlying disease and died Thursday night due to kidney damage and an irregular heartbeat.
“The patient died due to the combination of COVID-19 and her underlying disease. So, we are counting this as a COVID-19 death. If she wasn’t infected with COVID-19, she might have survived,” said MOHS spokesperson Dr. Than Naing Soe.
The patient became Myanmar’s youngest COVID-19 fatality so far. Prior to her death, a 47-year-old man in Bago Region was the youngest person to die of the disease in Myanmar.
Myanmar reported its sixth COVID-19 death, a 63-year-old man from Yangon’s Botahtaung Township, on April 29.
Coronavirus has been spreading rapidly in Myanmar since Aug. 16, when the first domestic transmission in a month was detected in a 26-year-old female bank employee in the Rakhine State capital, Sittwe. Prior to that, the country’s previous domestic transmission was reported on July 16, also in Rakhine.
Rakhine State reported 481 local transmissions and one imported case between Aug. 16 and Friday morning.
Yangon is the second hardest-hit city, with 189 reported cases since Aug. 19. Local COVID-19 transmissions have also been reported in other regions and states including Bago, Mandalay, Tanintharyi, Mon, Kachin and Shan.
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