How accurate are Gauteng Covid-19 hospital figures?

22 July 2020

Official figures by the Gauteng Health Department indicate that the number of people in hospitals with Covid-19 has decreased from 5576 last week to 2487 as of yesterday. This sharp reduction is welcome but does not seem credible as infections continue to increase and hospitals are all crowded with patients.

The National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) gives a figure of 2703 Covid-19 patients in Gauteng hospitals, with 2453 in private hospitals and 250 patients reported from only 5 public hospitals.

It appears that there is a severe under-reporting from public hospitals in Gauteng which needs to be rectified urgently as we need accurate figures to assess progress in fighting this terrible pandemic.

Issued byJack Bloom,DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 22 July 2020