YANGON, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A patient who recently tested positive for COVID-19 died in Myanmar on Thursday night, bringing the death toll in the country to seven, said a release from the Health and Sports Ministry Friday.

A 46-year-old woman with underlying Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) disease from Thanlyin township of Yangon region was confirmed to be infected by COVID-19 on Thursday morning and died of end-stage renal disease and heart failure in the evening, the release said.

It was the first death reported since Myanmar lastly reported a COVID-19 death on April 29.

On Friday morning, 22 new cases were confirmed, totaling the number of cases to 1,133 so far, the ministry's figures showed.

Of them, one is a returnee and the rest are local transmissions in Yangon, Magway regions and Rakhine state.

COVID-19 was first detected in Myanmar on March 23 this year and a total of 166,433 samples have been tested for the disease at the country's laboratories and 7,766 patients are under investigation at present, the figures said.