An­oth­er eight peo­ple have lost their lives to COVID-19, while an­oth­er 218 more peo­ple have test­ed pos­i­tive for the dis­ease, ac­cord­ing to the lat­est up­date from the Min­istry of Health.

In its up­date for to­day, Wednes­day 20 Oc­to­ber 2021, the Min­istry notes that these lat­est deaths have pushed up the na­tion­al death toll to 1,621 lives lost.

In ad­di­tion, the 218 new pos­i­tive cas­es, based on sam­ples tak­en be­tween Oc­to­ber 16th and 19th, mean that there are now 4,292 ac­tive cas­es of COVID-19 in the coun­try, at this time.

The health min­istry notes that 94.2% of the cur­rent par­al­lel health­care sys­tem are not ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed—some 4,178 from a to­tal of 4,437—based on da­ta from Ju­ly 22nd to Oc­to­ber 6th, 2021.

Cur­rent­ly, some 574,472 peo­ple in the coun­try are ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed, hav­ing com­plet­ed ei­ther a one-dose or two-dose regime.

And some 614,226 peo­ple have re­ceived their first dos­es of a COVID-19 vac­cine, as of to­day, Tues­day, the Min­istry’s up­date re­ports.

The Min­istry re­minds the pub­lic that a per­son is con­sid­ered to be ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed two weeks af­ter re­ceiv­ing the fi­nal rec­om­mend­ed vac­cine dose(s) of a World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (WHO) ap­proved vac­cine or vac­cine com­bi­na­tion.

The Health Min­istry al­so notes in its up­date:

● 281 per­sons are still hos­pi­talised for COVID-19; down from 289 pa­tients on Tues­day.

● 3,750 per­sons are in home self-iso­la­tion; down from 3,789 pa­tients on Tues­day.

● 49 per­sons are in State quar­an­tine fa­cil­i­ties; no change from Tues­day.

● 43 pa­tients are still re­cov­er­ing in step/down fa­cil­i­ties; down from 50 pa­tients on Tues­day.