Picture: 123RF/Jarun Ontakrai
As speculation over the veracity of Eastern Cape Covid-19 figures rises — with the province’s first two deaths still not registered on the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) website — provincial health boss Dr Thobile Mbengashe said things were not as simple as people imagined and verification processes had to be undertaken to ensure the cause of death was, in fact, the coronavirus.
Deaths, in any event, he said, were not the department’s main focus, with screening and testing the priority.
Mbengashe’s statement came shortly after health MEC Sindiswa Gomba confirmed two Covid-19 deaths at Livingstone Hospital last week.
The total number of Covid-19 cases in the Eastern Cape is 199.
Gomba confirmed that the deaths of a 77-year-old man and 66-year-old woman were Covid-19 related.
She said the man had been admitted to Livingstone with renal failure and it was only discovered during a post mortem that he was Covid-19 positive.
Asked why the two Eastern Cape deaths were still not registered on the NICD website, Mbengashe said a verification process was still under way to determine if the deaths were indeed a result of Covid-19.
“A death of a person must be diagnosed by a doctor and be given a certificate,” he said.
“Most people who die, [have] multiple [medical] conditions.
“There has to be a clinical diagnosis as to what killed someone.
“When we say the number of Covid-19 [deaths] is so much, this is a big assumption because we’re saying that if they did not have Covid-19 they would not have died.
“This process takes slightly longer than the number of positive cases and deaths.
“[For example,] if a person has TB or asthma, they can still die of a heart attack.
“The doctors are making a clinical judgment as to what is truly the cause of death because you can die of a stroke while you also have Covid-19, so that is really why it is taking so long.”
Mbengashe said there was much more scrutiny attached to Covid-19 numbers and deaths.
He said there were three to four deaths [in the province] that were being investigated.
“The delay is a reflection of the work and verification that need to be done.
“It’s not that national [government] doesn’t know about it.
“We’re not at that stage where we say everyone who has died has died because of Covid-19,” Mbengashe said.