Covid-19: Mozambique private hospitals reach full capacity, public sector at 80%, and tents at HCM – Carta

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Covid-19: Mozambique private hospitals reach full capacity, public sector at 80%, and tents at HCM – Carta

4:52 CAT | 19 Jan 2021

Photo: A Verdade

Hospital capacity for Covid-19 patients in Mozambique is almost exhausted. This Monday, National Director of Medical Assistance Ussene Isse said that private hospitals are full, heightening pressure on the public sector, which is at 80% capacity.

Isse told the weekly Covid-19 press conference that the public sector was currently increasing hospital capacity, in order to “save lives” .”We are looking at this increase in the number of hospitalised patients and we think that by 7 February we will have more beds available in the public sector,” he said.

In Maputo, which has 79% of Mozambique’s 219 hospitalised Covid patients, Maputo Central Hospital’s 40 Covid-19 beds are all occupied, and tents have been set up to house more beds.

At the Polana Caniço Hospital, also in Maputo city, only 33 beds of the 120 total are still empty, while at Mavalane General Hospital, there is a plan to install a further 150 beds.

“The public sector is currently opening its doors to receive patients from the private sector and Mozambicans who have the right to be assisted,” Isse said.

From Sunday to Monday alone, 43 more people were hospitalised across Mozambique – 24 in the country’s capital, six in Nampula province, six in Tete, five in Maputo province, one in Zambézia and one in Sofala. Twenty-three patients were discharged.

Isse told the news briefing that 68% of patients arrive at hospitals with “severe respiratory failure”, needing at least 10 days of hospital treatment.

Of the 219 patients currently hospitalised, 107 are in moderate clinical condition, 96 in severe condition and 16 in critical condition. “One hundred and thirteen are having oxygen therapy, 16 mechanical ventilation, and 16 are in intensive care,” Isse detailed.

Isse also said that there are currently no issues concerning oxygen or medicine supply, and that, out of the 100 ventilators in Mozambique, only 16 are being used.

By Marta Afonso

Source: Carta de Moçambique