South Africa's excess deaths surge as virus like 'wildfire'

By CARA ANNA and NQOBILE NTSHANGASE

JOHANNESBURG (AP) - Global hot spot South Africa is seeing a "huge discrepancy" between confirmed COVID-19 deaths and an unusually high number of excess deaths from natural causes, while Africa's top health official said Thursday the coronavirus is spreading there "like wildfire."

A new report by the South African Medical Research Council, released late Wednesday, shows more than 17,000 excess deaths from May 6 to July 14 as compared to data from the past two years, while confirmed COVID-19 deaths have surpassed 6,000.

"The numbers have shown a relentless increase - by the second week of July, there were 59% more deaths from natural causes than would have been expected," the report says.

The council's president, Glenda Gray, said the excess deaths could be attributed to COVID-19 as well as other widespread diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis while many health resources are redirected toward the pandemic.

Meanwhile, some South Africans are thought to be avoiding health facilities as fears of the new virus spread and public hospitals are overwhelmed.

"The coronavirus storm has indeed arrived," President Cyril Ramaphosa told the nation Thursday evening as cases surpassed 400,000. He announced that schools would "take a break" for a month to protect students.

South Africa now has the world's fifth largest caseload. It makes up more than half the confirmed cases on the African continent with 408,052.

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