South Africa’s excess deaths surge as virus spreads like wildfire’

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Global hot spot South Africa is seeing a huge discrepancy between confirmed COVID-19 deaths and an unusually high number of excess deaths from natural causes, while Africa’s top health official on Thursday said the coronavirus is spreading there like wildfire.

A new report by the South African Medical Research Council, released late Wednesday, shows more than 17,000 excess deaths from May 6 to July 14 as compared to data from the past two years, while confirmed COVID-19 deaths are 5,940.

“The numbers have shown a relentless increase  by the second week of July, there were 59% more deaths from natural causes than would have been expected,” the report says.

The council’s president, Glenda Gray, said the excess deaths could be attributed to COVID-19 as well as other widespread diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis while many health resources are redirected toward the pandemic.

Meanwhile, some South Africans are thought to be avoiding health facilities as fears of the new virus spread and public hospitals are overwhelmed.

South Africa now has the world’s fifth largest caseload.

It makes up more than half the confirmed cases on the African continent with 394,948, and the toll was expected to surpass 400,000 by the end of Thursday.

Africa’s 54 countries now have more than 750,000 cases overall.

Africa’s case fatality rate remains relatively low at just over 2%, but that measure is weakened if authorities don’t know the real numbers.

As cases climb, the Africa CDC director said a “universal masking of the continent is very important at this critical stage” as some officials in South Africa and elsewhere warn against pandemic fatigue.

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