[Photo: Supplied]

The Ministry of Health has recorded 684 new cases of COVID-19 for the 24 hour period that ended at 8am yesterday.

There are also five new COVID-19 deaths to report for the period of 19th July to 23rd July.

The first COVID-19 death to report is a 73- year-old woman from Namoli Village, Lautoka.

She presented to the Lautoka Hospital Emergency Department in severe respiratory distress.

Her condition worsened at the hospital and she died on the same day. She was not vaccinated.

The second is a 96-year-old woman from Nadera who died at home. She was not vaccinated.

A 67-year-old woman from Suva died at home as well. She was not vaccinated.

The fourth COVID-19 death is a 57-year-old woman from Nasinu.

She presented to a health facility in severe respiratory distress.

Her condition worsened at the health facility and she died on the same day.

She was not vaccinated.

A 57-year-old man from Nasinu died at home.

He was not vaccinated.

There have been 12 more deaths of positive patients classified as non-COVID deaths.

Doctors have determined that these deaths were caused by serious pre-existing medical conditions.

There have now been 177 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 175 of these deaths during the outbreak that started in April this year.

We also have recorded 87 COVID-19 positive patients who died from the serious medical conditions that they had before they contracted COVID-19.

There have been 165 new recoveries reported since the last update, which means that there are now 16,563 active cases.

There have been 22,443 cases during the outbreak that started in April 2021.

We have recorded a total of 22,513 cases in Fiji since the first case was reported in March 2020, with 5,686 recoveries.

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