Mozambique has the capacity to conduct 10 tests per day but plans to increase it – report

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Mozambique has the capacity to conduct 10 tests per day but plans to increase it – report

9:45 CAT | 23 Mar 2020

File photo: Lusa

The Mozambican public health system has the capacity to test 10 suspected cases of the new coronavirus a day, a source from the Ministry of Health said today, claiming that it has been enough and admitting an increase according to needs.

“The needs from the point of view of suspects is 10 a day,” said Eduardo Samo Gudo, deputy director of the National Health Institute (INS), at a press conference in Maputo.

Samo Gudo explained that the tests, conducted in a laboratory of the National Institute of Health located on the outskirts of the capital, Maputo, are triggered according to the classification criteria of the World Health Organisation (WHO), that is, for each person returning from a country with Covid-19 and shows a symptom within the following 14 days.

Other criteria consist of testing a person who has had contact with a confirmed case or who has severe respiratory problems due to a cause not known.

The INS deputy director added that the country is making efforts to expand the capacity of tests, not only in terms of reagents, but also of equipment for the Central and North regions of the country.

“We are about to receive 20,000 tests from the Chinese government and we will significantly increase our ‘stock’ reagents capacity,” he said.

A week ago, the director-general of WHO stressed the importance of testing in combating the spread of the disease.

“You cannot fight a fire blindfolded. And we cannot stop this pandemic if we don’t know who is infected.” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus , stressing that the WHO message to all countries is simple: “test, test, test” .

Since the beginning of the pandemic and until today, the National Institute of Health has tested 55 suspected cases, which resulted in the one confirmed case in the country to date: a Mozambican who returned from the United Kingdom in the middle of the month.

The man over 75 is in isolation at home with mild symptoms of Covid-19.

During the current situation, the Mozambican Ministry of Health announced that “a total of 23 direct contacts with the infected Mozambican ” have been identified ” and that everyone is” in home quarantine “.

“All of these contacts are being monitored regularly by health authorities”, he revealed.

The ministry also announced the second case of an infected Mozambican citizen in the diaspora, in this case, a resident in Portugal.

On Saturday the first case of an infected Mozambican living abroad, in Spain, had been announced.

The new coronavirus, responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, has already infected more than 341,000 people worldwide, of whom more than 15,100 have died.

After emerging in China in December, the outbreak spread across the world, prompting WHO to declare a pandemic.

Source: Lusa