Record number of excess deaths in first week of 2021
More than 20,000 South Africans died between 30 December 2020 and 5 January 2021, according to the Burden of Disease Research Unit at the South African Medical Research Council. A record 10,907 were excess deaths from natural causes – the vast majority of which are likely attributed to Covid-19, says the council. Unnatural causes – such as accidents and murders – fell below the prediction. As James Stent and Nathan Geffen write:
“By comparison, in the worst years of the Aids epidemic (in the 2000s), there were at most about 6,000 excess deaths due to the disease each week. But this went on year after year, while the current Covid-19 surge will subside in the short-term.”