Staff Reporter
At least 34 people below the age of 18 have died as a result of COVID-19-related complications in the Free State over the past two years.
The provincial health department says it discovered the deaths after analysing its list of casualties for 2020 and 2021 following the death of a Grade 8 learner at Kgotso Taole Secondary School in Botshabelo who succumbed to the disease.
Spokesperson Mondli Mvambi told The Free Stater that the death of the learner which led to the discovery of the deaths of other minors in the province is an indication that no age group is safe from the disease.
“It is important with this discovery that COVID-19 needs to be taken very seriously,” said Mvambi.
“It affects people of all ages. So, there is no myth that must say people of a certain age are less infected,” he pointed out.
According to Mondli, at least 13 of these cases were discovered as a result of post-mortem while 21 were in facility.
Nine of the deaths occurred during 2020 while 25 cases happened this year.
“All of us, irrespective of our ages, are supposed to be adhering to the applicable non-pharmaceutical interventions,” said Mvambi.
“We know that at some stage people were concerned about the use of masks in children of lower ages . . . in that it may impact on their ability to breathe properly, but to the best of our ability . . . we need to make sure that we have high levels of adherence and make sure that we protect everyone.”
Mvambi said the number of infections for those aged zero-18 years was probably lower in 2020 because there was a long period of hard lockdown compared to this year.
He said this year there have been more interactions among learners and this could have led to some dropping their guard.
The learner who passed away last weekend has been named as Mojalefa Thipane.
The provincial education department said his school will remain closed until next Wednesday.
Education MEC Tate Makgoe said on Twitter that the learner died after a short illness and the cause of death was established after post-mortem.
“It is with deep sorrow to announce that . . . Mojalefa Thipane passed away on Sunday . . . after a short illness. On Thursday it was reported that the cause of death was COVID-19-related complications,” he said.