A total of 64 patients at a hospital in Okinawa Prefecture have died in a coronavirus cluster infection.

Patients and staff at Uruma Kinen hospital started contracting the Delta variant around mid-July. Infections spread rapidly and developed into the largest-scale cluster infection recorded in the prefecture.

Prefectural officials say 173 hospitalized patients and 23 staff members have so far been confirmed infected.

Hospital officials say five deaths were confirmed as of July 30 and the number of fatalities continued to rise.

They say most of those who died were elderly and some patients died after being transferred to other hospitals.

But they say many of the patients couldn't be transferred because of the strained healthcare situation.

Doctors and nurses of the hospital and medical staff who were sent from other facilities are caring for the patients.

A hospital official said that if the patients hadn't been infected, they could have continued to recuperate at the hospital. The official said the hospital will do everything possible to deal with the situation.

Source: ANNnewsCH