The South Africa NATIONAL Health department has corrected Covid-19 death figures after an audit.
In a statement issued last night, the department said it has discovered over 500 deaths that were not originally recorded as Covid-19 deaths.
Please see the full statement below.
To: Editors & Journalists
Issued by: Department of Health
Date: Thursday,06 January 2022
Health Department records COVID-19 deaths backlog
Pretoria: The Department of Health has today recorded over 500 COVID-19 deaths due to the ongoing audit exercise conducted by provinces across the country to address a backlog of COVID-19 mortality and new cases.
Out of 551 deaths recorded today, only 45 have occurred in the past 48 hours.
Provinces like the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal account to 476 historical combined deaths in patients with documented SARS-Cov-2 infection.
The identification of these historic deaths is part of the process to align the provincial death line list with excess deaths.
The provincial COVID-19 dashboards reflect COVID-19 deaths by date of death rather than by date reported, and provides the most accurate trends in deaths in patients with documented SARS-CoV-2 infection.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Mr Foster Mohale
National Health Department
0724323792
[email protected]
Mr Doctor Tshwale
Media Liaison Officer for Health Minister
063 657 8487
