Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize
Image Source: Flickr
COVID-19: Fatalities deaths increase, Mkhize explains why
Hundreds of people in the country have succumbed to the coronavirus and the death toll has passed the 17 000 mark, reaching another sombre milestone in the fight against the respiratory disease
Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize
Image Source: Flickr
The Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize has acknowledged that the country has experienced a spike in COVID-19-related deaths, but has attributed this to “data collation.”
More than 330 people have died from the respiratory disease in the past week, which Mkhize said they had grown concerned over. This is because reports from the Medical Research Council had claimed there were no excess deaths for three weeks in a row.
“We therefore consulted the provinces to ascertain the reason for the increased numbers. We have received reports that the provinces are implementing the recommendations of the MRC to reconcile the data with home Affairs deaths data,” the minister said.
“In addition, provinces are auditing the deaths data either by mining data from the DATCOV surveillance reports and identifying unreported deaths or auditing the facilities on the ground,” he further said.
“We welcome this robust refinement of data collation as it reassures us that moving forward, we exercise precision in our epidemiological surveillance.”
COVID-19: South Africa has more than 50 000 active cases
In light of the aforementioned, 160 people have succumbed to the virus – bringing the national death toll to 17 408, as of Friday, 9 October 2020. Currently, Gauteng, also the epicentre of the disease, has the most fatalities with 4 836 followed by the Western Cape with 4 239.
“We extend our condolences to the loved ones of the departed and thank the health care workers that treated the deceased patients,” said Mkhize.
The country has also picked up 1 736 new infections, which means the cumulative number of cases has risen to 686 891. However, there is some good news in the fight against the respiratory disease as the number of recoveries now stand at 618 771, which translates to a recovery rate of 90%.
The number of active cases is at 50 712.
The country is currently under Alert Level 1 of the national lockdown, however there are concerns of a second wave of COVID-19 – which government has long said would depend on citizens adhering to the necessary health and safety measures.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has deployed a team of experts in the field, to help the country in its fight against the disease.
