‘Too soon’ to say if South African suicides rose during lockdown

Data scarcity makes it difficult to tease out trends, says Stellenbosch academic

The number of people who died by suicide in the early months of the pandemic seems not to have risen, and may even have fallen slightly, in high- and upper-middle-income countries, a recent study reveals. But scarce data makes it difficult to gauge whether the same is true for lower-income countries.

Jason Bantjes from South Africa’s Stellenbosch University was part of the International Covid-19 Suicide Prevention Research Collaboration that produced the study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry on 13 April.