Officially, as of the latest stats released last night, South Africa’s COVID-19 death toll stands at 88 674.
In total, since March last year, close to 250 000 deaths from natural causes have been reported over and above what was expected during the same period.
South Africa now has a total of 41 117 confirmed deaths, although all evidence points to that number being vastly underreported.
In the week from December 30 through to January 5, South Africa recorded 20 063 deaths, which far exceeds the predicted number of deaths.
Perhaps the only thing we know for certain about COVID-19, is that we don’t really know everything yet.
Research by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and UCT’s Centre for Actuarial Research shows that we may still not be getting anywhere near the full picture.
With our testing backlog and, let’s be honest, government incompetence, we know we’re not getting the full picture with regards to the spread of the virus, which is why the ‘excess deaths’ number is so important.