· A report by South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) states that Covid-19 is likely to create more fatalities among patients of Black African and Coloured, compared to White people.
· The results are comparable to that of similar reports in the United States which found that Black and Hispanic and/or Latin people faced a higher mortality rate than White people
A report by South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) states that Covid-19 is likely to create more fatalities among patients of Black African and Coloured, compared to White people pointing out that people with lower socioeconomic status are more vulnerable and at a higher risk of the novel coronavirus. The results are comparable to that of similar reports in the United States which found that Black and Hispanic and/or Latin people faced a higher mortality rate than White people.
.South Africa’s department of statistics classifies the population into Black South African, White South African, Coloured South African, Asian South African, and Other/Unspecified. According to the NICD report, race is for the first time reported to be a critical factor with people dying in hospital. Data for the report was based on DATCOV, a surveillance system developed by the NICD to monitor Covid-19 hospitalisations around the country. The system admits that some limitations on its ability to collect data. The process was Initiated on April 1, 2020. The system aggregates data submitted by public and private hospitals in all nine provinces of South Africa – Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, North West, Free State, Kwazulu Natal, Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
As of August 18, the confirmed Covid-19 case total from 55 African countries has reached 1,128,061 with reported deaths of 25,898 and recoveries 846,102. South Africa topped the list with the maximum cases – 589,886, with deaths numbering 11,982. Other most-affected countries include Egypt (96,590), Nigeria (49,485), Algeria (39,025), and Ghana (42,653).
