Smokers are more likely to get serious Covid-19 and die of the disease, a first-of-its-kind study has found.
, said active smokers have an 80% higher chance of needing to be admitted to hospital after a Covid-19 infection than those who do not smoke.
One in three SA men and one in 14 women smoke cigarettes regularly, according to the Tobacco Control Data Initiative dashboard.Cigarette sales were controversially banned between March 27 and August 18 2020 under lockdown regulations, and co-operative governance minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma argued in court that the ban was needed t
o reduce the incidence of smoking and the risks posed by Covid-19 to smokers and to those exposed to cigarette smoke. The high court in Cape Town ruled that the ban limited smokers' rights to human dignity because it denied them the choice of buying tobacco products. In an editorial linked to the new research, Anthony Laverty and Christopher Millet of Imperial College London said the suggestion early in the pandemic that smoking may protect against Covid-19 was always improbable.
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