The South African Medical Research Council says the number of excess deaths in the country is on the rise again as South Africa battles the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
SAMRC says this could be an indication that a number of COVID-19-related deaths go unreported.
The SAMRC’s weekly report on excess deaths shows that since the beginning of May last year, South Africa has seen 173 000 excess deaths from natural causes of which 90 000 occurred this year.
Breakdown of weekly deaths:
Chief Specialist and Co-author of the council Professor Debbie Bradshaw shares more on the report.
“We think these are deaths that occur outside of hospitals, people who haven’t been tested for COVID-19 and demise quickly perhaps long term care homes or at home. And it’s very consistent in all the provinces that the actually more deaths that are confirmed COVID-19 deaths.”
South Africa has reported close to 60 000 COVID-19-related deaths since the pandemic hit the country.
Latest COVID-19 stats for SA:
Loading…
