by Thinus Ferreira
After the shocking Covid-19 death of e.tv's etv News and eNCA (DStv 403) cameraman Lungile Tom on Wednesday morning in South Africa, the eNCA anchor Sally Burdett on Wednesday night described it as "just so sudden and so shocking and so desperately sad" as more details were revealed about the dramatic way his health rapidly declined and he passed away.
eMedia Investments was stunned over the news of the cameraman's death on Wednesday morning who became one of the latest victims of the global Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic in South Africa, with South Africa's TV news and media fraternity who mourned his untimely passing.
Lungile Tom (45) who worked for e.tv's eNews and eNCA (DStv 403) TV news channel got sick last week and died within days.
On Thursday morning last week he was still fine and reported for work with his temperature that was taken and that was normal. By Thursday evening he was getting very, very sick. By Sunday he was hospitalised and three days later he was dead.
Nisa Allie, e.tv's head of news, on Wednesday night on e.tv and eNCA (DStv 403) in a simulcast broadcast of the etv News TV news bulletin, spoke about Lungile Tom and said that "on Wednesday and Thursday [last week] he didn't report anything during the course of the day".
"On Thursday night he contacted his line-manager and said that he wasn't feeling well, that he would go to the doctor on Friday and that he would advise as to what the doctor said. Over the weekend his condition deteriorated and by Sunday night he was rushed to hospital by ambulance."
"On his admission, staff tested him for Covid-19. His symptoms seemed to be in line with that, and by Monday he had been admitted into the intensive care unit (ICU)," she said.
"The test results came back in the late hours of last night, confirming that he did, in fact, have Covid-19 and sadly, and devastatingly, earlier this morning we got news that he had passed away."
ALSO READ: Coronavirus: e.tv cameraman Lungile Tom fondly known as 'Marawa' who worked for eNews and eNCA dead from Covid-19, staffers who had contact will be tested and told to stay home.
ALSO READ: etv News boss Nisa Allie pays tribute to cameraman Lungile Tom who died from Covid-19: The loyal 'fist-pumping guy who documented everything and who liked a muffin and coffee for breakfast'.
ALSO READ: Coronavirus: Lockdown of eMedia Investments' e.tv building in Cape Town for a Covid-19 deep-clean after cameraman Lungile Tom's death, over 70 staffers sent into home-quarantine to self-isolate for 14 days.
ALSO READ: Coronavirus: Tributes flow after Covid-19 death of etv News and eNCA cameraman Lungile Tom: 'A tender, older-brother figure whose physical size made you feel safe and secure no matter where we were reporting from'.
