Excessive deaths in South Africa surge as’wildfire’ virus

In South Africa, there is a “major disagreement” between COVID-19 confirmed mortality and a much higher natural cause of excess mortality. “It is spreading.

Johannesburg-In South Africa, a hotspot in the world, there is a “major discrepancy” between the confirmation of COVID-19 deaths and the much higher excess of natural causes. health Officials say Coronavirus “Like a forest fire” is spreading there.

A new report by the South African Medical Research Council, published late Wednesday, compared with data from the last two years, starting May 6, while confirming 5,940 deaths from COVID-19. By 14 July, it has recorded over 17,000 excess deaths in South Africa.

“The numbers are showing a constant increase — by the second week of July, there were 59% more deaths from natural causes than expected,” the report says.

Congressional chair Glenda Gray said in a statement that excess death could be caused not only by COVID-19 but also by other widespread illnesses such as HIV and tuberculosis. health The resource is pandemically redirected.

Meanwhile, it is believed that some South Africans are avoiding medical facilities, overwhelmed by the spread of the new virus and fear of public hospitals.

“This is seen in all countries with COVID-19,” Zweli Mkhize, Minister of Health, said in a report.

South Africa currently has the fifth largest case load in the world. It accounts for more than half of the 394,948 confirmed cases on the African continent, and is expected to have more than 400,000 tolls by the end of Thursday.

Currently, more than 750,000 cases occur in 54 countries in Africa.

South Africa is “extremely concerned,” John Nkengason of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Africa told reporters.

And now other African countries, especially Kenya, are becoming a problem, where Mr Kenkagathson said the incident “has started very, very quickly.” Currently, more than 14,000 cases have been identified in the East African commercial hub.

Nkengasong said that local virus infections have begun in many countries on the continent, and when sown in vulnerable communities such as slums, they “spread like the wildfires currently seen in South Africa.” ..

The true number of cases in Africa is unknown, as shown in a new report in South Africa, the most advanced country on the continent.

With only 7.2 million tests run on a continent of 1.3 billion people, the tests are still limited by supply shortages. Data collection is incomplete because some people have died at home or before being tested. Even before the pandemic, few African countries were equipped to track death extensively.

“Community death, we don’t know how the country sees it,” Nkengasong said.

Africa’s mortality rate in this pandemic remains relatively low at just over 2%, but if officials do not know the actual death toll, its measurement will be weakened.

As the number of cases increases, African CDC directors say “universal masking of the continent is very important at this critical stage” and some officials, including South Africa, warn against pandemic fatigue. ..

Many countries across Africa were rapidly blocked as the pandemic spread across Europe and the United States, delaying its domestic spread. But economic pressures forced most governments to loosen regulations, but South Africa banned alcohol sales this month to help free up valuable hospital beds.

“The continent has the opportunity to fight back in a successful way for some time,” said Nkengasong, pointing out that 37 countries are still reporting less than 5,000 cases.

But front-line people were hit hard: The World Health Organization said Thursday that more than 10,000 health workers were infected in the African region, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.

WHO Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti said he cannot say how many workers died as efforts continue to improve data collection.

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