Coronavirus death toll rises to 27, confirmed cases now at 2,272

A total of 27 South Africans have lost their lives to the coronavirus while the number of confirmed cases in the country now stands at 2,272.

There are 99 new cases. Health minister Zweli Mkhize released the latest figures during an engagement session with the media and medical experts on Monday night. The session was broadcast on television and through the video-conferencing platform Zoom.

One death occurred in the Western Cape, while the other was in Gauteng.

Only hours before Mkhize’s address, the World Health Organisation announced the coronavirus was 10 times more deadly than the swine flu pandemic of 2009.

While swine flu claimed 18,000 lives, there already have been more than 114,000 Covid19 deaths globally.

Mkhize said he was aware that people were querying the figures, but emphasised there was a delay.

“We receive the figures at midnight, and then we work through them during the day.

That is why there is a lag,”

Mkhize said.

He said in terms of fatalities, the health department followed

Coronavirus 10 times more deadly than swine flu

a policy of waiting for a full report on the dead patients. That way it could establish conclusively whether they had succumbed to the coronavirus or not.

To date, 438, 815 people have been screened in the country, and 4,537 have been referred for further testing.

The national health department has still not mentioned the lone death in the Eastern Cape, a retired nurse who died at Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth on Thursday.

On Sunday Eastern Cape health MEC Sindiswa Gomba said the provincial health department had sent statistics to the national department.

“The message must not have got to them yet,” she said.

“Despite the national health department saying there are zero deaths, there is a death in the province in PE.”