Mozambique: INS warns against “second wave” of Covid-19 – AIM report

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Mozambique: INS warns against “second wave” of Covid-19 – AIM report

4:56 CAT | 29 Dec 2020

Screen grab: MISAU

The deputy director of Mozambique’s National Health Institute (INS), Eduardo Samo Gudo, on Monday stressed the need to strengthen preventive measures against the Covid-19 respiratory disease, in order to avoid a “second wave” of infections.

Speaking at a Maputo press conference Samo Gudo noted there are signs that a second wave has already struck South Africa, Eswatini and Namibia.

The positivity rate (the number of Covid-19 positive results as a percentage of all those tested) has been rising in Mozambque, he said, reaching 6.9 per cent in late December. There were increases in the positivity rate in seven of the 11 Mozambican provinces.

“If we want to avoid a second wave”, said Samo Gudo, “then we have to reverse this scenario of a gradual increase in the positivity rate that we saw in the last weeks of December”.

Nonetheless, Mozambique’s figures are much better than those of most other members of SADC (Southern African Development Community). Mozambique has recorded 725.26 cases of Covid-19 per million inhabitants, which is better than all continental SADC countries except Malawi (402.2 cases per million) and Angola (703.31 cases per million).

The worst hit SADC country by far is South Africa, with 18,423.6 cases of the disease per million inhabitants, followed by Namibia and Eswatini, with 10,374.92 and 7,583.81 cases per million respectively.

As for Covid-19 deaths, Mozambique has the lowest figure in SADC, of 6.35 deaths per million inhabitants. South Africa’s grim total is 491.11 deaths per million.

These statistics exclude Tanzania, which has not reported any Covid-19 statistics since May.

The number of Mozambican districts reporting at least one case of Covid-19 has gradually increased – from 136 in late November to 137 in late December (85.1 percent of all districts).

Samo Gudo said that, of the 161 Mozambican Covid-19 deaths reported by Monday, 90 (56 per cent) were of people over 60 years old. 35 were aged between 50 and 59, 13 between 40 and 49, and only 23 were under 40 years of age.

Source: AIM / MISAU