The Health Protection Agency (HPA) have confirmed five additional Covid-19 related deaths on Monday, with which 61 people have died from the infection in Maldives in the ongoing month of May.

Five local men were confimed to have passed away from health complications due to Covid-19, aged 81, 58, 77, 93 and 85.

With this, a total of 61 Covid-19 fatalities have been reported in the Maldives during the ongoing month of May 2021. The Maldives total Covid-19 death toll now sits at 134 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.

This is the highest number of Covid-19 fatalities confirmed in the Maldives in a single month, with four deaths recorded in January, 10 deaths in February, five Covid-19 fatalities reported in March and six deaths confirmed in April 2021.

The Maldives had initiated an expansive national Covid-19 vaccination drive in February, with the Oxford AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine, the Pfizer vaccine, the Sinopharm vaccine and the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine approved for use in the country. However, reports suggest there are thousands of citizens who are unable to receive second doses of Covishield vaccines due to a shortage in global supply of vaccines.

Statistics made public by HPA earlier this week revealed that of the Covid-19 fatalities reported in May, 64 percent corresponded to persons who had not received a single dose of Covid-19 vaccines when the death toll for May 2021 had been at 39.

Healthcare workers have been sharing stories on social media describing an unprecedented shortage of human resources at ICUs and Covid management facilities across the country, but HPA assures that there have been no disruptions or neglect in relation to the care of Covid-19 patients in the Maldives.