An 81-year-old Durban woman died from Covid-19 in hospital on Thursday afternoon.

The woman had been at the Bill Buchanan Association for the Aged in Morningside for only four days when she tested positive for the deadly virus.

Her son told SowetanLIve's sister publication TimesLIVE on Thursday that his mother had died at 2.19pm.

The woman had been on a ventilator until Wednesday afternoon.

“The specialist confirmed the halt of all further medication and support. She will be made comfortable for her passing. We are waiting on the final tiding,” her son said on Wednesday evening.

On Saturday, the home's spokesperson Dudley Fortune said a woman had recently been admitted to St Augustine's Hospital for a suspected stroke.

The woman, who is from the Bluff, south of Durban, was then discharged and admitted to the home's step-down facility.

“She was only here for four days when she got sick again. We sent her back to St Augustine's Hospital,” he said.

Since then four residents had tested positive for the virus.

During the department of health's last announcement on Tuesday, health minister Zweli Mkhize said the country's death toll from the coronavirus was five people.

He said that an Umlazi teacher had died earlier in the day.