Durban - South Africa has only one confirmed death from Covid-19, the Health Minister Zweli Mkhize clarified late on Friday.
Earlier on Friday, the Department of Health had announced that two women from the Western Cape, aged 28 and 48, had died from the coronavirus. However, after conducting tests, it has been found that the younger woman tested negative for the virus and died from an unrelated cause, not coronavirus.
Mkhize said the 28-year-old woman had died by the time she arrived at an ICU at a medical facility.
"The clinicians who were treating her have reported to us the woman had presented at the hospital in respiratory distress. At the time of presentation, she was hypoxic (cells in body are deprived of oxygen). She was incubated and transferred to hospital during the early hours of Friday monring and upon arrival at the ICU, she was declared dead," he said.
Mkhize said due to the symptoms that the woman presented, tests were conducted.
"We received her restults by 5:20pm on Friday and they were negative. Her immediate family was also tested and they were also negative. She is therefore no longer considered a Covid-19 case," he said.
Regarding the 48-year-old woman, Mkhize said the deceased tested positive on March 23 - four days ago.
"She was suffering from pulmonary embolism (blood clot in her lungs). This means she had an underlying disease," Mkhize said.
He said the health department was concerned that the infection of people with underlying illnesses was increasing. He urged residents to be vigilant, protect themselves from unnecessarily exposing themselves by making contact with lots of people.
These are some of the underlying medical illnesses that make people vulnerable:
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Chronic lung disease (TB, asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)
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Auto Immune Diseases (of any kind)
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Chronic Kidney Disease
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Cancer
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Diabetes
Other groups include smokers and alcohol dependent consumers and the elderly.