57-year-old with 'no record of underlying diseases' dies of Covid-19

A 57-year-old man from Gauteng died in the intensive care unit at the weekend, becoming SA's 27th Covid-19 death.

But what was worrying for health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, who was speaking on Monday evening, was that “we don't have record of any underlying diseases”.

Mkhize said there had been two additional deaths, including this man, since the statistics were released on Sunday night. There were 99 new cases of Covid-19 across SA, taking the national total to 2,272.

The second confirmed death, said Mkhize was a 68-year-old man from the Western Cape. He had underlying illnesses including diabetes, hypertension and chronic renal disease.

“This has been the pattern for most of the people we have seen,” said Mkhize.

Before providing the statistics, Mkhize noted: “It is still early days for us, and it's going to be a long and hard struggle. This is a serious challenge that we must all brace up to facing.”

Mkhize said that, so far, 83,663 people had been tested, with 21,290 from the public sector.

“That number is beginning to pick up,” said Mkhize.

Since then, it is quite amazing we didn't know this virus existed four months ago ... we have seen us go from a  small outbreak to  1.8 million people infected. That gives us some indication of how rapidly this epidemic can grow.

This is a developing story.