On Thursday, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said that three people have lost their lives due to complications associated with the mosquito-borne Zika virus. Maduro said that Zika’s suspected cases had risen to 5,221.

Brazil said on Thursday that three people who lost their lives previous year suffered from Zika virus, though authorities don’t have any evidence that Zika solely was behind their deaths.

Just one in five people suffering from Zika experience illness and even then they are usually mild symptoms. Scientists so far haven’t succeeded in fully understanding the virus and so far there is no proof showing that it causes the birth deformations or any death reports.

During a broadcast on state television, Maduro said that they have 319 confirmed cases, out of which sadly 68 brought along complications. He said that three deaths have been reported due to Zika nationally.

He didn’t give any further information regarding the deaths and didn’t even mention the number of pregnant women thought to be suffering from the virus. The Health Ministry gave no response to earlier requests for information regarding the number of pregnant women suffering from Zika.

According to Maduro, the number of suspected cases has reached 5,221 in the time period between November 5 and February 8. As per the only previous public estimate that came last month there were nearly 4,700 suspected cases.

A global emergency has been declared by the World Health Organization over likely associations to birth defects from the Zika virus, which has spread across over 30 countries.

Doctors said that Venezuela in fact has a quite greater Zika incidence than admitted publically. They said that the leftist government hasn’t done enough to fight the outbreak.