Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize says 240 health workers both in the public and private sector have died due COVID-19 related complications.
Mkhize was answering questions to the social cluster in the National Assembly on Wednesday night.
He also denounced the wide spread corruption around the procurement of COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment which some of the opposition parties say it led to the death of the health workers due to shortage of the equipment.
Mkhize says they are committed to making sure that health workers are protected.
He says, “At this point, our number of both private and public is around 31 000 who are infected and we have lost about 240 of those. We really do feel very sad, we have lost some members or even the fact that some of them have been infected. We will continue to commit ourselves to ensure that all of them are protected as much as possible.”
In the video below, National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union raises concern over workers’ safety in the Free State:
Last month, health workers held a strike over the alleged lack of Personal Protective Equipment to protect frontline workers in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic:
![[File Image]: A nurse at one of South Africa's hospital during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.](https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/HOSPITAL.jpg)
