Covid-19: Nyusi tests negative but the first lady does not

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Covid-19: Nyusi tests negative but the first lady does not

8:20 CAT | 06 Jan 2022

Photo: in file CoM

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has now tested negative for the coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease.

A press release from the President’s office on Monday said that Nyusi and his wife, First Lady Isaura Nyusi, had both taken a rapid Covid-19 test, which showed they were both infected.

Although neither were showing any symptoms, they went into isolation while awaiting the definitive results from a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test.

Those results are now available. On Wednesday, Nyusi’s office announced that two PCR tests have given negative results for the President. One test was undertaken at the Public Health Laboratory, and the other at the laboratory of the National Health Institute (INS). The results for the First Lady were positive, but she remains asymptomatic.

Nyusi, said the release, “is continuing to observe preventive measures against the Covid-19 pandemic”, while awaiting the stabilisation of his wife’s condition.

Meanwhile, the fourth wave of Covid-19 is continuing to rage throughout the country, with 3,594 new cases reported on Wednesday.

According to a Wednesday press release from the Ministry of Health, since the start of the pandemic, 1,124,257 people have been tested for the coronavírus, 8,279 of them in the previous 24 hours.

4,685 of these tests gave negative results, while the 3,594 positive cases brought the total number of Covid-19 cases diagnosed in Mozambique to 199,940. Of the new cases identified on Wednesday, 2,013 were women and 1,581 were men. 507 were under 15 years of age.

The new cases were spread fairly evenly across the country, with over 100 new cases in each of the provinces. Maputo city and province remained the hardest hit areas, with 596 cases in the city and 497 in Maputo province. There were also 478 cases in Sofala, 396 in Gaza, 392 in Zambezia, 337 in Manica, 303 in Nampula, 216 in Inhambane, 170 in Cabo Delgado, 105 in Niassa, and 104 in Tete.

Over the same 24 hour period, 20 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospital (14 in Maputo, three in Zambezia, two in Matola and one in Niassa), but 65 new cases were admitted (30 in Maputo, 10 in Sofala, six in Nampula, five in Gaza, four each in Matola, Zambezia and Niassa, and two in Tete).

The number of people under medical care in the Covid-19 treatment centres rose from 195 on Tuesday to 232 on Wednesday. 131 of these patients (56.5 per cent) were in Maputo. There were also 23 patients in Sofala, 16 in Manica, 15 in Inhambane, 12 in Zambezia, 11 in Gaza, 10 in Niassa, six in Nampula, five in Matola, two in Tete and one in Cabo Delgado. Thus there is at least one Covid-19 patient hospitalised in each of the 11 provinces.

The positivity rate (the percentage of those tested found to be carrying the virus) rose from 41.45 per cent on Tuesday to 43.41 per cent on Wednesday.

The Health Ministry reported a further eight deaths from Covid-19. The latest victims were five man and three women aged between 35 and 79. Five of the deaths occurred in Maputo city, one in Maputo province, one in Gaza and one in Zambezia. This brought the total Covid-19 death toll in Mozambique to 2.050.

The Ministry release also reported the full recovery from Covid-19 of 1,586 people (866 in Gaza, 357 in Inhambane, 337 in Maputo province and 26 from Zambezia). The total number of recoveries now stands at 161,153, which is 80.6 per cent of all those ever diagnosed with Covid-19 in Mozambique.

The number of active Covid-9 cases rose from 34,733 on Tuesday to 36,733 on Wednesday. The geographical breakdown of the active cases was as follows: Maputo city, 8,371 (22.8 per cent of the total); Maputo province, 7,785; Inhambane, 3,509; Gaza, 3,373; Sofala, 3,178; Manica, 3,170; Cabo Delgado, 1.961; Nampula, 1,863; Zambezia, 1,813; Tete, 991; Niassa, 719.

The Ministry also reported that, in the previous 24 hours, a further 132,989 people were vaccinated against Covid-19. To date, 6,907,793 people have been fully vaccinated against the disease, and 9.304,895 have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Source: AIM