A South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) employee in Port Elizabeth has become the latest COVID-19 related death in the province.

Colleagues at the Zwide local office were informed of the grant administrator’s death via a work chat group on WhatsApp today.

"During the lockdown period the deceased was deployed to monitor the April payment cycle at various ATMs and Merchants around PE. She was also part of the SASSA team that was assigned a responsibility of distributing the social relief of distress food parcels to various households who are facing undue hardship around the NM Bay Metropolitan," the message said.

"She died at her place on Monday morning and it took time for her body to be collected," one of the Sassa employees said to Sowetan

Another colleague said they feared for their lives as the deceased had tested positive on Wednesday and then went into quarantine at her place, which she shared with her boyfriend. 

"Unfortunately the boyfriend and other family members who were contacts of the deceased have not been tested yet. Just imagine how many people they have been in contact with," she said.

SASSA's spokesperson Reverend Luzuko Qina said announcements on covid-19 deaths were made by the Minister of Health. 

"I am not in a position to confirm or not to confirm at the moment" he said.