South African Deputy President David Mabuza has called on the world to honour the death of internationally-renowned Indian-origin virologist Gita Ramjee by intensifying the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mabuza was reacting to the death of the 64-year-old multiple-award winning South African scientists due to COVID-19 complications after returning from London, where her two sons live.
“In (Ramjee’s) honour, we should heed the call to flatten the curve by strengthening our responses to this global pandemic as well as continue the fight to achieve zero new HIV infections,” Mabuza said in a statement. Mabuza has described Ramjee’s death as a “huge blow to the entirety of the health care sector and the global fight against HIV/Aids.” “In her, we have indeed lost a champion in the fight against the HIV epidemic, ironically at the hands of this global pandemic,” Mabuza said.