Bahrain yesterday registered its eighth fatality from Covid-19, the GDN's Raji Unnikrishnan reports.

The 36-year-old man was also the first expatriate to die from the virus in the country – as well as the youngest.

“The Health Ministry announces the death of a 36-year-old immigrant who had underlying diseases and health conditions,” said the ministry on Twitter.

“The patient, along with all other active Covid-19 cases, had been placed in isolation and received extensive 24-hour treatment from a specialised medical team.”

The other seven fatalities have been elderly Bahrainis with chronic health conditions.

Meanwhile, local employers of the deceased in an internal note yesterday identified the dead as an Indian national.

The management urged his colleagues to observe a minute’s silence at 5pm in respect of the departed.

“We are in touch with the authorities and as per Civil Defence guidelines the body cannot be released to the family due to the cause of death being related to Covid-19,” said the note.

“All his dues and pending salary will be sent to his immediate family.”

Meanwhile, 190 new cases of Covid-19 were registered yesterday taking the total active cases to 1,127.

Of these, one patient remains in a critical condition.

Among the new cases, 165 are migrant workers, 18 got infected from contacts locally and the remaining from abroad, said the ministry.

“The 165 new active cases among expatriate workers were detected following 3,510 Covid-19 tests conducted in the past 24 hours,” it said.

“This is in conjunction with an ongoing campaign to test workers at their residence.” 

Additionally, 56 more people recovered and left treatment and isolation facilities, taking the total number of recoveries to 1,082.

Bahrain has to date registered 2,098 Covid-19 cases including 1,083 recoveries and eight deaths.

A total of 101,667 people have been tested so far.

Meanwhile, another group of Bahrainis were brought back from Iran on a Gulf Air flight yesterday.

This was part of Bahrain’s International Covid-19 Repatriation Programme (ICRP).

The GDN earlier reported that around 600 Bahrainis are brought home every week as part of the ICRP.

These people were among the 1,630 citizens stranded in Iran since the outbreak of Covid-19.

The government last month had announced a detailed two-month evacuation plan to bring back 3,027 Bahrainis stranded around the world due to the pandemic.

Thirteen out of the 18 flights designated to bring back 1,630 Bahrainis from Iran have arrived, while the remaining are scheduled to arrive by May 28.

Direct flight arrangements for the others have been made with Gulf Air depending on available destinations and accessibility.

The government also revealed that 3,027 out of the 43,699 Bahrainis currently living, working, studying and stranded abroad have expressed their desire to return to Bahrain and have registered with the government’s ICRP.