Lithuania reports first COVID-19 death

A worker wearing a protective suit disinfects a bus in Vilnius, Lithuania, on March 18, 2020.(Photo by Alfredas Pliadis/Xinhua)

As of Saturday morning, 21 people tested positive for the coronavirus inLithuania, bringing the total tally to 69.

VILNIUS, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania reported its first COVID-19 death on Friday, the Lithuanian Ministry of Health said Saturday.

According to the ministry, the patient, an elderly woman with a number of chronic conditions, died shortly after being taken to the emergency department of Ukmerge Hospital in central Lithuania on Friday.

The COVID-19 diagnosis was confirmed after her death. As of Saturday morning, 21 people tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total tally to 69, according to official data.

A notice on a bus during the national quarantine in Vilnius, Lithuania,March 18, 2020.(Photo by Alfredas Pliadis/Xinhua)

Also on Saturday, Lithuanian health vice minister Algirdas Seselgis said that a doctor from Ukmerge was diagnosed with COVID-19 and 160 persons had had close contacts with the doctor.

"The sad news is that 127 of them are medical workers," Seselgis was quoted by local media as saying.

He was speaking amid public concern that medical workers in Lithuania were not sufficiently tested and hospitals might become the focal points for the spread of the coronavirus.

Seselgis said all the 160 persons will receive tests for COVID-19.

A plane from Avia Solutions Group with the donation from Huawei Baltic and China Chamber of Commerce lands at an airport in Vilnius, Lithuania on March 20, 2020.(Chinese Embassy in Lithuania/Handout via Xinhua)

Earlier on Friday, it was revealed that new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Lithuania also included a doctor from the largest Vilnius hospital Santaros Klinikos. Two medical workers had been confirmed positive with the coronavirus in Ignalina, a town in eastern Lithuania.

According to the data from the Institute of Hygiene under the Ministry of Health, around 13,700 doctors worked in Lithuania in 2018.

Up to the date, a total of 1,466 COVID-19 tests have been carried out in Lithuania.

Workers wearing protective suits disinfect a bus in Vilnius, Lithuania, on March 18, 2020.(Photo by Alfredas Pliadis/Xinhua)■