Asymptomatic Covid-19 carrier dies in Cabo Delgado; MISAU withholds location of first patient hospitalised in Maputo city

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Asymptomatic Covid-19 carrier dies in Cabo Delgado; MISAU withholds location of first patient hospitalised in Maputo city

4:48 CAT | 20 May 2020

Photo: A Verdade

A Mozambican citizen with Covid-19 died in Palma district, Cabo Delgado, on Tuesday (19), the Ministry of Health (MISAU) announced yesterday, while, In Maputo city, the first patient with the new coronavirus has been hospitalised. MISAU had not disclosed to which health unit he was admitted or in which neighbourhood the individual resides. The 79th Total oil worker infected with the Covid-19 coronavirus in the Afungi peninsula was also diagnosed.

“There is a record of the death of an asymptomatic Covid-19 carrier – a male Mozambican, aged between 40 and 49 years old, from Palma Sede, diagnosed on May 15, 2020. He was in isolation at home, and remained asymptomatic for any sign or symptom suggestive of infection Covid-19,” National Director of Public Health Dr Rosa Marlene announced.

“He was admitted, unconscious, to the local health unit at around 11:00 a.m. today (May 19), and died a few minutes later. The clinical picture presented in the [patient’s] last hours suggests that the cause of death was due to another pathology and not directly related to Covid-19,” Dr Marlene explained.

According to the health authorities, this citizen, deceased at the age of 40, probably contracted the coronavirus from public works construction workers in Cabo Delgado province, as, they say, did the other eight infected in the Palma district headquarters.

Also on Tuesday (19), “a male of Mozambican nationality, aged between 60 and 69 years old and diagnosed as a Covid-19 carrier on May 18, 2020, has been hospitalised In Maputo city. He is under observation and medical care pending final diagnosis,” Dr Marlene revealed, declining to indicate the health unit where the individual is being treated or as the neighbourhood where he lives.

The hospitalised patient forms part of one of six new Covid-19 transmission chains diagnosed in an undisclosed “populated neighbourhood” within the Mozambican capital.

Dr Marlene also revealed that, of the 256 tests performed at the National Institute of Health, plus nine more in the private sector, only one tested positive for Covid-19, bringing to 146 the cumulative total in Mozambique, of which 122 are locally transmitted and 24 imported cases.

The most recent confirmed case is “an individual of Belgian nationality, aged 25 to 34 years old, whose diagnosis results from the re-testing of the quarantined cases from Afungi. He has no symptoms and is in isolation at home in the city of Maputo”. This makes him the 79th Total worker to be diagnosed with Covid-19 in Mozambique.

By Adérito Caldeira

Source: A Verdade