Latest Gauteng Covid-19 figures make no sense

13 November 2020

According to the latest figures released by the National Health Department there are now 1384 active COVID-19 cases in Gauteng, but according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) there are 1781 COVID-19 patients in Gauteng hospitals.

This is clearly not possible and the real figures need to be clarified urgently.

The Gauteng Health Department last reported on 4 November that there were 229 490 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 209 243 recoveries, 1730 patients in hospital and 4845 deaths. This works out to 15 402 active cases at that date.

How could active cases have gone done so dramatically while hospital cases have apparently increased slightly?

The NICD figures are taken from 128 health facilities in Gauteng, and record 349 COVID-19 cases in Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital alone.

Anecdotally I have not heard such high figures from hospitals, but the estimated total number of active cases seems far too low as well.

It is vitally important that we have accurate figures so that we can track this epidemic and intervene rapidly at hotspots.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, 13 November 2020