Puerto Rico has raised the official death toll after Hurricane Maria swept across the island nearly a year ago.

Within six months, an estimated 2,975 people had lost their lives due to the hurricane – the previous death toll was 64.

The decision was made by Puerto Rico's governor, Ricardo Rossello, after George Washington University conducted an independent investigation into how many deaths could be linked to the hurricane.

Puerto Rico is a US territory in the Caribbean and the Trump administration received heavy criticism for its late recognition of the destruction caused by Hurricane Maria.

It's only been two weeks since all of Puerto Rico got its power back for the first time. The power outage following the storm is the longest continuous outage in U.S. history, according to CNN.

Source: sverigesradio.se