Kingstown – St Vincent and the Grenadines recorded its second coronavirus (COVID-19) death on Monday.
The deceased is an 80-year-old male who was admitted to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital on Friday, with complications of a chronic non-communicable disease, the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) said in a press statement.
“The elderly gentleman tested positive for COVID-19 during the routine screening conducted on all admissions,” the statement added.
“The patient, who was managed on the COVID-19 Isolation Ward, became unstable and died at 4:30 a.m. today, January 18, 2021.”
The death followed the first COVID-19 death on Friday, January 15 – that of a 49-year-old female with multiple pre-existing conditions.
NEMO said then that the woman presented to the hospital services the previous evening with difficulty breathing.
She was confirmed to be positive for COVID-19 on admission, rapidly deteriorated and died at 5 p.m. on Friday.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves extended condolences to the family of the woman, whom he identified as Jestina Pompey.
“I know Jestina. Of course, she’s Spiritual Baptist Archbishop [Melford] Pompey’s sister,” he said on WE FM.
NEMO said on Monday that 494 cases of COVID-19 had been reported in SVG as of Sunday.
Of these, 118 people have recovered, 374 cases remain active and two people with COVID-19 have died. (CMC)
