Covid-19 related deaths have claimed the lives of 35 young children and teenagers in Gauteng since March. 

This was revealed in the latest weekly report by the provincial command council on Thursday. 

This comes as the province recorded 213,741 cumulative cases and 3,860 deaths. Of the deaths, 2,074 (54%) were males and 1,786 (46%) were females. 

People between the ages of 50-99 accounted for the majority of deaths in the province - 3,087. Those younger than 50 accounted for 768 deaths (including the 35 children and teens under the age of 19). 

Five people older than 100 died.

In terms of death analysis, the report said that 56% of the deaths occurred within a week of diagnosis or admission to hospital, while 36% died within three days. 

Comorbidities 

In about 56% of the deaths, patients had either diabetes or hypertension or both ailments.  

The report also showed that 2,535 people were now hospitalised with the virus - 722 of them were in ICU and high care and 1,813 in general wards.

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The province, however, stressed that the number of hospitalisations was not alarming.

“There has been a significant decline in the daily new hospital admissions. The highest number of hospital admissions was recorded in the middle of July. The highest recorded daily new admissions was over 320, with the total number of admitted patients being 7,193 and 1,863 patients on oxygen on July 22,” the report said.

Health department spokesperson Kwara Kekana said the province had recorded 188,987 recoveries.

Johannesburg district remains the most affected area with 85,866 cases, 1,523 deaths and 80,099 recoveries. 

Ekurhuleni follows with 48,135 cases, 810 deaths and 46,687 recoveries. Tshwane had 46,711 cases, 954 deaths and 39,783 recoveries.  

A total of 4,699 cases remain unallocated. 

“Allocating Gauteng cases to respective districts is ongoing. After obtaining further information on contact numbers and addresses from law enforcement agencies, provincial outbreak teams and the National Institute of Communicable Disease (NICD), we are able to make corrections where a case might have been incorrectly allocated to a particular district,” added Kekana.