[imagesource: Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images]

In the week from December 30 through to January 5, South Africa recorded 20 063 deaths.

That stat, from the latest South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) report, exceeds the predicted number of deaths by 131%, which is an excess of 10 907 deaths.

It’s important to note that these are not all COVID-19 deaths, but as we have covered in previous stories related to excess deaths, there is a correlation between those and an increase in COVID-19 infections.

This tweet thread is well worth a look, with the largest increase in excess deaths in provinces hardest hit by COVID-19:

New SAMRC Excess Deaths report is out, covering the period to 5 Jan 2021. 83 918 estimates excess natural deaths since 6 May 2020. Mortality in the last week of 2020 (starting 30 Dec) 193% higher than normal in WC; 220% higher in KZN; 131% nationally.

— Tom Moultrie (@tomtom_m) January 13, 2021

Over at Home Affairs, they’ve also noticed a spike, reports News24:

Home Affairs this week also reported their death registration numbers showed a steep increase. The increase in the deaths was attributed to the second wave of the coronavirus that the country is gripped by.

Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi this week said the department had seen an increase of about 44% in the number of death certificates issued in December.

He said for December 2020, the department registered 55 676 deaths as compared to 38 620 deaths in December 2019.

On Wednesday, 806 new Covid-19 deaths were recorded, increasing the number of those who died to 35 140.

Last night, the stats for Thursday were released, and the country recorded its three most deadly COVID-19 days on consecutive days.

Another 712 COVID-19 related deaths have been confirmed, bringing South Africa’s total to 35 852.

More from TimesLIVE:

Since the beginning of the year, the number of recorded deaths has climbed from 28,887 on January 1 to Thursday’s figure of 35,852 – an increase of 6,965 deaths. The country has recorded more than 500 deaths in a 24-hour period six times since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020, with five of them coming since January 5…

Also on Thursday, Mkhize announced that 18,503 new Covid-19 infections had been recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the national total of cases to 1,296,806. The new infections came from 74,830 tests, at a positivity rate of 24.7%.

Whilst that positivity rate has actually dropped over the past while, a number close to a quarter is still really, really bad.

Worldometer stats show that 211 214 COVID-19 cases are still considered active, which ranks 14th in the world.

[sources:news24&timeslive]