Don’t become another statistic

DURING the course of this week South Africa lost the 85000th person to Covid-19. The first death was recorded on March 27th last year. That means we’ve lost about 4 722 lives every month in the last year-and-a-half, or about 157 people every day.

These are the cases that have been recorded. We know many people did not get tested or did not seek medical care.

Earlier this month research showed that since the pandemic started, the number of people who died exceeded expectations by 250 000. Most of these people are thought to have succumbed to Covid-19.

Even as restrictions ease, scientists are warning of a fourth wave by the end of this year. At this stage our best defence against the virus is vaccination. This week we passed the milestone of 15million jabs being administered, but there is still a long way to go before our population of about 60million is vaccinated.

If you’ve not yet had the jab, do so in the coming weeks. By December, it may be too late.