Zambia Could Be Massively Under-Reporting Covid Deaths

A study of mortuaries in Lusaka suggests that Zambian authorities could be massively under-reporting the number of deaths caused by Covid-19, with the true figure as much as ten times the official statistics. 

Researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health took nose and throat swabs from the bodies of recently deceased people at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka and found a far higher incidence of Covid-19 than expected. 

Of the 364 bodies they tested, Covid-19 was detected in 70 corpses - almost 20% of those tested.

Lawrence Mwananyanda, who led the research, said the findings cast doubt on the view that Covid-19 had “somehow skipped” Africa. 

“If our our data are generalisable, the impact of Covid-19 in Africa has been vastly underestimated,” he said. 

Of the 70 patients who tested positive for Covid-19, only 19 had been admitted to hospital, while the remaining 51 died in the community, where Covid-19 testing is almost non-existent. 

“In Lusaka now, everybody knows someone who has died of Covid or who is in the hospital with Covid,” Dr Mwananyanda said. 

The official number of Covid-19 deaths in Zambia is 723, however this research indicates that the true figure could be over 7,000. 

Dr Mwanayanda predicts that this pattern is being replicated in many other African countries, where Covid-19 testing is limited and cause of death often goes unrecorded.