The number of COVID-related fatalities in South Africa could be much higher than originally thought, according to CEO of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19, Professor Glenda Gray.
The SAMRC recently published data that shows that since May, South Africa has reported an estimated 17 000 more deaths than expected.
It is not known how many of these were related to the pandemic because the deceased were not tested for the virus.
Professor Gray says this rise in excess deaths could also be attributed to those persons not having access to the healthcare system.
#Covid_19 Statistics in SA as at 24 July. pic.twitter.com/j9K3vQg2l2
— Dr Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) July 24, 2020
As of today, the total number of confirmed #COVID19 cases is 421 996, the total number of deaths is 6 343 and the total number of recoveries is 245 771. pic.twitter.com/CpbrFqShXq
— Dr Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) July 24, 2020
Gray says the under-reporting of deaths during the pandemic is something that is not SA-specific, but a problem that many countries around the globe are experiencing.
“So, we said that these deaths coincide with the epidemic and so they not all attributable to COVID per se but to things that are happening in the health system at the time of the epidemic. So some of them will be COVID specific and some of them will be non COVID because people did not access the health system. All countries are seeing a lot of deaths and a lot of countries do underestimate deaths directly because doctors may not be reporting them. People may die before they get to the hospital so you don’t know what they died of and often you may not even have the test and the doctors feel uncomfortable writing COVID on the death certificate.”
In the audio below, the South Africa Medical Research Council comments on COVID-19 clinical trial results:
The latest “excess death” report from the SAMRC has come out, reporting up until 14 July 2020, and it’s getting a fair amount of attention, but I think there is a big story in there which is being missed.
In the tweet below, SAMRC COVID-related deaths report:
Find the report here: https://t.co/uv42E0UtW6
— Peter Castleden (@peter_castleden) July 23, 2020
