Health MEC confirms Eastern Cape death despite no national confirmation

Eastern Cape health MEC Sindiswa Gomba has moved to explain why national Covid-19 figures are not yet reflecting a death in the Eastern Cape.

On Thursday, Gomba announced that a retired nurse died at Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth earlier that day.

Yet, since then, the national health department in its daily breakdown of fatalities and confirmed cases in the country has failed to mention the Eastern Cape death.

Speaking at the East London correctional centre in Westbank on Sunday, Gomba confirmed the fatality.

She said the provincial department sent statistics to the national department.

“The message must not have got to them yet,” she told DispatchLIVE.

“Despite the national health department saying there are zero deaths, there is a death in the province in PE.”

There are now 26 infected people at the corrections centre, 23 officials and three inmates.