Latvia reports first COVID-19 death

Latvia recorded the first death of a patient with COVID-19 on Friday, as the number of coronavirus infections continue to rise in the Baltic country.

According to national health authorities, the patient was a 99-year-old woman who was being treated at the Latvian Infectious Diseases Center since March 27.

For the first three days after hospitalization, she received treatment in the intensive care unit, but as her condition stabilized, she was transferred to a general ward where she died from a chronic illness, not COVID-19, medics said.

Since Latvia reported its first coronavirus patient on March 2, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has grown to 493, the country's Center for Disease Prevention and Control said Friday.

The situation in Latvia could be considered relatively good in Europe, but it is worrying that medics are regularly seen in the daily infection cases, said Jurijs Perevoscikovs, a senior official at the Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

To contain the spread of COVID-19, the Latvian government declared a national emergency on March 12, effective until April 14. Strict social distancing rules have also been imposed, with only up to two people at a time allowed to interact outside their homes, unless they are members of the same household.

In addition, the government has been introducing increasingly tough measures, including school closures, bans on international passenger traffic, and the closure of shopping malls on weekends.