Evidence mounts that SA's Covid-19 death toll is not accurate, could be double reported 20 000

New analysis of the country’s excess deaths by a preeminent scientist has added weight to evidence that South African authorities could have significantly under-reported the Covid-19 death toll.  

If a significant proportion of the excess deaths found by researchers are in fact linked to Covid-19, it would push South Africa from relatively low in the global rankings of Covid-19 mortality per one million people of the population, to almost 700 deaths per million which would place it among the hardest hit countries in the word.  

The analysis by Professor Alex van den Heever, the chair of the University of the Witwatersrand School of Governance’s social security systems and management studies, found a significant proportion of excess deaths reported can be linked to Covid-19, based on the timing of the deaths compared with confirmed cases.