DURBAN: The Sa Medical Research Council believes that the country's Covid-related death toll could be much higher than reported.
The latest Covid-19 update from the National Department of Health shows that the country's total death toll stands at 97 520, with 89 of those cases reported on Wednesday.
Speaking to Cape Talk, Professor Debbie Bradshaw of the SAMRC's Burden of Disease Research Unit, said the true number could be closer to three times the reported figure.
Bradshaw said the Department of Health has a system of collecting daily data from all provinces and the number of excess the SAMRC)is tracking is more or less three times higher.
"The Department of Health puts up official Covid-confirmed deaths which they get from heads of the provincial departments collected mostly in their facilities –though they do try to include deaths that occur in the private facilities and in the community.
“But that process of reporting, the concern Covid death is a little bit cumbersome. And we think perhaps they are missing some. Certainly we've seen some problems with some provinces tweaking their records and increasing their reporting," she said.
Bradshaw said the SAMRC tracks all deaths which were also gathered from the Department of Home Affairs when deaths were registered.
She said there was a challenge in that the council was unable to access some information and could take a little longer to record.
Bradshaw said the council has noted a decrease the number of weekly deaths – as per their tracking records.
"There is good news. The Omicron wave has seen lower deaths than previous waves of the pandemic," she said.
Last month, the Department of Health reported a backlog in cases.
At the time, department spokesperson Foster Mohale said they were conducting an audit exercise.
He said the provincial Covid-19 dashboards reflected Covid-19 deaths by date of death rather than by date reported, and provided the most accurate trends in deaths in patients with documented Sars-CoV-2 infection.
IOL