Mozambique: January saw one third of all Covid-19 deaths

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Mozambique: January saw one third of all Covid-19 deaths

5:52 CAT | 20 Jan 2021

File photo: Lusa

A full one third of Mozambique’s 249 Covid-19 deaths have occurred since the beginning of the year, the National Health Institute revealed yesterday in its analysis of the country’s epidemiological situation.

January is not over yet, and has already seen 83 deaths, more than double any previous monthly total since the country’s first case was registered in March 2020.

The weeks with the most new cases of Covid-19 detected in Mozambique were, by a large margin, the two weeks between January 3 and 16.

“The rise, almost exponentially, of positivity in the previous week and the notable peak in the number of [weekly] cases is clearly seen when compared to the whole history of the pandemic,” director of surveys at the INS, Sérgio Chicumbe, said.

In the first full week in January, weekly cases reported in Mozambique rose from 806 to 2,393 and, in the second week, the number jumped to 4,501 – with the weekly positivity rate approaching 30%.

The percentage of positive cases in the total number of tests carried out since March 2020 stands at 8.9% – 27,446 of the 306,344 tests performed so far.

Health authorities also highlight the “sharp growth” in the number of hospitalisations in the previous week, a total of 197, a number that exceeds the maximum monthly hospitalisations of 2020.

Currently [by Tuesday] , 215 cases remain hospitalised.

“Of the hospitalisations, more than 70% of the patients are in a very serious, I would say critical, condition; they need ventilatory support to survive,” national director of medical assistance at the Ministry of Health Ussene Isse stressed during the most recent update.

Analysis of the country’s epidemiological situation also reveals that 88.2% of Mozambican districts are affected, although the majority of cases are concentrated in Maputo city and its surroundings.

The highest number of deaths continues to occur among people over 60: 133 out of a total of 249 deaths, according to data from health authorities.

“We have to note that in the northern region, in Cabo Delgado, epidemiology is difficult to carry out in some regions, so the situation may be worse than this,” Sérgio Chicumbe added.

Among the countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Mozambique recorded one of the highest weekly growth rates (25%) in the number of deaths, and one of the highest weekly growth rates in cases per million inhabitants (21.1%).

Source: Lusa