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Covid-19: Main Mozambican hospital facing serious blood shortage
3:21 CAT | 22 Apr 2020
HCM clinica director. doctor Farid Ursi. [Photo courtesy: HCM] 8
Maputo Central Hospital (HCM), Mozambique’s main health unit, is at risk of running out of blood reserves because the number of donors has decreased due to the new coronavirus pandemic, hospital management announced yesterday.
“HCM is appealing to fellow citizens who are not in the at-risk groups and under the age of 70 to go to our blood-banks and donate,” HCM clinical director Farid Ursi said.
Ursi says the hospital’s main donors are students, churchgoers and others, all of whom have seen their routine change drastically with the imposition of the current state of emergency.
HCM used to obtain 400 units of blood a day, but has only been receiving about 70 units daily since Covid-19 hit, far too little to satisfy demand.
The hospital has called on patients’ family members to help make up the shortfall.
Mozambique, with a total of 41 official Covid-19 cases, is under state-of-emergency regulations for the duration of April, with schools, entertainment and leisure places closed, all types of events and meetings banned, and borders shut.
According to an AFP report, the Covid-19 pandemic has already caused more than 170,000 deaths worldwide, and infected almost 2.5 million people in 193 countries and territories.
About 558,000 of those infected are considered to have fully recovered.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December in Wuhan, a city in central China.
Source: Lusa
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