Six more children died with measles-like symptoms in 24 hours until 8:00am on Tuesday, raising the country’s combined number of confirmed and suspected measles-related deaths to 979 this year.

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has classified all six latest fatalities as suspected measles deaths.

With these, the total number of suspected measles deaths has reached 880, while confirmed deaths from measles have remained the same at 99.

A total of 1,159 new suspected measles cases were reported during the 24-hour period, bringing the cumulative number of suspected cases nationwide to 159,150.

Meanwhile, 72 new confirmed measles cases were recorded, bringing the total number of laboratory-confirmed infections to 19,384.

Since March 15 this year, a total of 139,519 patients with suspected measles have been hospitalised across the country, of whom 134,458 have recovered, according to DGHS data.