COVID deaths concern Tufton, Guy

Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has revealed that the increasing number of COVID-19-related fatalities is a concern for public-health experts, but the worrying numbers have been blamed on an emerging trend of self-medication and late hospitalisation.

Tufton said that some of the deaths had also taken place months before but were now just being ruled as caused by COVID-19 after protracted investigations.

“In the early stages, there was a fear and we had persons wanting to make sure, even with a little sniffle. Now, persons feel like they can manage,” he said.

Tufton was responding to concerns raised by Opposition Spokesman on Health Dr Morais Guy in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Guy questioned the rate of COVID-19-related deaths over the past three to four weeks although infections are trending down.

“Even when you take those numbers that were previously under investigation, we get them at eight to 10 per cent, and at the height of this spike that we had in March/April of this year, the weekly fatality rate was under one per cent,” the opposition spokesman said.