This coun­try’s COVID-19 death toll has crossed the 1,400 mark and now stands at 1,405.

This, as the Min­istry of Health has con­firmed that eight more peo­ple have lost their lives to COVID-19. 

How­ev­er, there is a small drop in the num­ber of new in­fec­tions, with 218 peo­ple test­ing pos­i­tive for the dis­ease, com­pared with 272 re­port­ed on Sep­tem­ber 16th.  The new pos­i­tive cas­es are based on sam­ples tak­en be­tween Sep­tem­ber 13th and 16th and mean that there are now 3,986 ac­tive cas­es of COVID-19 in the coun­try, at this time.

Al­so in its up­date for to­day, Fri­day 17 Sep­tem­ber 2021, the Min­istry notes that cur­rent­ly, some 459,411 peo­ple in the coun­try are ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed, from ei­ther a one-dose or two-dose regime.

And some 555,534 peo­ple have re­ceived their first dos­es of a COVID-19 vac­cine, as of to­day, Fri­day, the Min­istry’s up­date re­ports.

The Health Min­istry al­so notes in its up­date:

● 269 per­sons are still hos­pi­talised for COVID-19; down from 273 pa­tients on Thurs­day.

● 3,432 per­sons are in home self-iso­la­tion; up from 3,315 pa­tients on Thurs­day.

● 142 per­sons are in State quar­an­tine fa­cil­i­ties; up from 131 pa­tients on Thurs­day.

● 67 pa­tients are still re­cov­er­ing in step/down fa­cil­i­ties; down from 72 pa­tients on Thurs­day.