Pacific / French Polynesia

French Polynesia hits 77 Covid-19 deaths as case numbers keep rising

14:30 pm on 3 December 2020

Another person has died from Covid-19 in French Polynesia, bringing the territory's death toll since the beginning of the pandemic to 77.

File image. Photo: 123rf.com

In the last 24 hours, 157 new cases have been recorded.

There are currently 84 people in hospital with 23 of them in intensive care.

Today's numbers bring the territory's total number of people infected by Covid-19 since testing began in March to 14,716. Cases topped 14,000 on 30 November.

Infections have been occurring steadily, with numbers hitting 13,000 less than two weeks ago, 12,000 on 17 November and 11,000 just five days before that, on 12 November.

All but 62 of these cases were detected after the borders were reopened in July and mandatory quarantine requirements were abolished in an effort to boost tourism and reignite the economy.

Medical personnel were recently flown in from France to help with the outbreak.

Previous reporting has stated that the virus was concentrated on Tahiti but has spread across all archipelagos.