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Minister Mkhize must account for flawed Eastern Cape Covid-19 statistics

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Dear MyPE

I will again write to the Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize, to request feedback and a full report after more woefully inadequate Eastern Cape Covid-19 statistics were released earlier this week by the Department of Health.

The minister announced on Wednesday, 6 January 2021, that the Eastern Cape, with 452 deaths, has the highest Covid-19 mortality rate in the country, but that the province only has the third lowest number of active Coronavirus cases.

These statistics are flawed keeping in mind that the Eastern Cape is also leading the way in accounting for 22 530 excess deaths in the country. The majority of these deaths can be attributed to Covid-19 but are not being indicated as such by the Department of Health.

These facts read together tell a very simple story – testing and reporting in the Eastern Cape remain inaccurate and totally inadequate.

According to Minister Mkhize the 452 deaths reported in the Eastern Cape on 6 January 2021 were as a result of a data reconciliation dating between May and November 2020. Firstly, data should be reconciled daily and there should be no backlog during a pandemic. Secondly, these 452 deaths are just the tip of the iceberg.

Suspected Covid-19 patients are being turned away from healthcare facilities without being tested and community testing has all but ground to a halt in many districts. This will impact negatively on the number of active cases being reported.

Since April 2020 the DA has been requesting that the data analysis and reporting required intervention in order to reflect accurately on the status of the pandemic in the province.

In my letter to Minister Mkhize I will request that those responsible for the poor management of Covid-19 statistics and data be held to account. I will also request a full report on how many posthumous Covid-19 tests have been conducted per district in the Eastern Cape since the Department’s commitment in July last year to do so.

The bottom line is that the excess deaths in this province are so high simply because testing rates for Covid-19 are so low.

Because this province is an incapable state with incapable leaders, the second surge of the Covid-19 pandemic will continue to wreak havoc in the Eastern Cape.

Regards

Jane Cowley, MPL
DA EC Shadow MEC for Health

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