In an unprecedented event, the Health Department reported today, Saturday, 42 new deaths from COVID-19 among people ages 40 to 101, according to the agency’s preliminary report.
It is the first time that Health reports more than 40 deaths in the same day. The statistics do not mean that all the deaths occurred in the past 24 hours, but rather that they are reported as the agency refines the data through the BioPortal.
The figure reported today brought to 354 the number of deaths that have been reported on the island so far in January as a result of the omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The island is currently averaging 16 deaths per day. In addition, the cumulative total of deaths since the emergency began in March 2020 until today is 3,673.
“For the health of everyone in Puerto Rico, whoever has not been vaccinated should get vaccinated and whoever does not have the booster should get it,” the governor wrote. Peter Pierluisi on his Facebook account in the face of the record number of deaths from the virus.