Excessive deaths in South Africa surge as’wildfire’ virus

“The numbers are showing relentless growth-by the second week of July, there were 59% more deaths than expected due to natural causes,” the report said.

Parliament’s chairman, Glenda Gray, says that while many health resources are directed to pandemics, excess death may be due to COVID-19 as well as other widespread illnesses such as HIV and tuberculosis. Said that there is.

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.

South Africa currently has the fifth largest case load in the world. This accounted for more than half of the 394,948 confirmed cases on the African continent, with tolls expected to exceed 400,000 by the end of Thursday.

One South African nurse was buried on Thursday. This is the latest in over 5,000 infected healthcare workers across South Africa.

Her husband said Duduzile Margaret Mbonane died a month before his retirement. She was 59 years old. A colleague in white dress stood at an outdoor monument and made a vow to serve the nurse.

Some were scared. “Most of our colleagues are very infected, as I’m talking now,” said fellow nurse Lindiwe Ini. “We took care of people we didn’t know. We’d see that in a few days.” She wants a quick test for the virus.

“The government must support our nurses in protective clothing,” said Dubertzile’s husband, Herbert Mbonane. “Perhaps my wife would not have died if personal protective equipment was provided in time.”

The World Health Organization announced Thursday that more than 10,000 health workers have been infected in the African region, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

WHO Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti said she could not say how many health workers, most of whom were nurses, died. She said shipments of 41 million personal protective equipment from China will begin this weekend.

In total, there are now more than 750,000 cases in 54 African countries.

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

And now, in other African countries, especially Kenya, the problem is getting worse. According to Nkengasong, the lawsuit was “initiated 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 1.3 billion continents, the tests are still limited by lack of supply. Data collection is incomplete because some people die 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 remains relatively low at 2%, but its measurements are weakened if authorities do not know the actual number.

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 African countries were quickly blocked as the pandemic competed across Europe and the United States, slowing 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 as a whole still has the opportunity to successfully strike back,” Nkengasong said, pointing to 37 countries reporting less than 5,000 cases.

Temba Hadebe contributed to this report.

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