COVID-19 death rate in Mozambique remains low

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COVID-19 death rate in Mozambique remains low

3:30 CAT | 20 Oct 2020

File photo: Lusa

The death rate in Mozambique from the Covid-19 respiratory disease remains lower than that of any other mainland southern African country that is keeping figures.

Giving the weekly epidemiological analysis from the National Health Institute (INS), at a Maputo press conference on Monday, the INS national director for surveys, Sergio Chicumbe, said the current Mozambican death rate is 2.9 deaths per million inhabitants.

The figure in South Africa is 340.1 per million, in Eswatini it is 104.8 per million, and in Namibia 61.9 per million. Only Tanzania has a lower death rate than Mozambique (0.4 deaths per million), and that is because the Tanzanian authorities stopped issuing Covid-19 statistics in early May.

As for number of diagnosed cases of Covid-19, the Mozambican figure is 433.9 per million inhabitants, slightly higher than the figures for Angola (306 per million), and Malawi (370.6 per million).

This is a far cry from the figures in South Africa (13,001.9 per million), Namibia (5,817.5 per million), or even Botswana (2,588.7 per million).

The Mozambican national positivity rate (number of Covid-19 positive cases as a percentage of all people tested) is now 6.5 per cent. Broken down by province, the rate is at its highest in Maputo province (14.2 per cent), Maputo city (ten per cent), and Sofala (8.2 per cent). In Cabo Delgado and Nampula, which were among the worst hit provinces three months ago, the rate has fallen to 0.6 per cent and 1.6 per cent.

Most of the cases of Covid-19 remain asymptomatic. 56 per cent of cases, at the moment of diagnosis, had no symptoms. 37 per cent had slight symptoms and six per cent had moderate symptoms. Only one per cent had serious symptoms.

The figures show clearly that those most at risk from Covid-19 are the elderly. Of the 75 Mozambican deaths to date, 37 were over 60 years old and 18 were between 50 and 59 years old.

Source: AIM