Medical Certification of Death Due to COVID-19

Medical Certification of Death Due to COVID-19

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently provided international guidelines on the medical certification of cause of death due to Covid-19 .This indicates that Covid-19 should be recorded on the medical certificate of cause of death for ALL decedents where Covid-19 caused, or is assumed to have caused, or contributed to death. Mortality due to Covid-19 is an important population-based measure of the epidemic. When testing for SARS-CoV-2 is constrained, death information becomes even more important. For this reason, it is imperative that clinicians in South Africa are aware of their obligation under law to report accurate causes of death on the South African death notification form. This means that clinicians are bound by law to report Covid-19 as a cause of death in cases where this has been confirmed, as well as in cases where, in their opinion this is the most probable cause of death, even if a test result is not available to confirm this.  
Type
Health Circulars
Topic
COVID-19
Language
English
Publisher
National Department of Health
Year
2020