Covid-19: MISAU says it does not understand what type of transmission is occurring in Maputo city and province – Carta

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Covid-19: MISAU says it does not understand what type of transmission is occurring in Maputo city and province – Carta

12:43 CAT | 24 Jul 2020

FILE- Ministry of Health (MISAU), in Maputo city. [File photo: MISAU]

It remains difficult to declare whether Maputo city or Maputo province are the community transmission phase of the new coronavirus, in contrast with the cities of Nampula and Pemba, in the provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado, where community transmission was declared last June.

The province of Maputo currently has a total of 191 active cases of Covid-19, while the city of Maputo has 183 people still infected with the disease. However, health officials say they have not yet understood whether or not they are at the community transmission stage of the disease.

According to the National Director for Health Survey and Observation, Sérgio Chicumbe, both Maputo city and Maputo province have in the last few days been registering small foci of transmission, which makes it difficult to understand the type of transmission taking place.

The fact is, he says, that active surveillance in recent weeks has not been enough to find more cases of Covid-19, which is why the health sector is considering implementing an epidemiological survey to detect more positive cases .

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday to clarify issues related to the evolution of the disease in the country, Chicumbe said that, for example, from Wednesday to Thursday, health authorities tested fewer suspected cases in this part of the country – 29 in Maputo city and 47 across the province – out of a total of 629 samples tested across the country as a whole.

“The province and city of Maputo may be currently changing the type of transmission, but only a survey can help to identify precisely what the current situation is,” Chicumbe said.

At a press briefing this Thursday, National Director of Public Health Rosa Marlene announced the diagnosis of 25 more cases of infection with the new coronavirus, bringing to 1,582 the cumulative total of positive cases, of which 1,426 are accounted locally transmitted and 156 imported.

Of the 25 newly diagnosed patients, 24 are Mozambicans and one Cameroonian. Twenty-one are in Cabo Delgado province, two in Nampula, one in of Manica, and one in the city of Maputo.

Rosa Marlene said that Mozambique had registered the recovery of five more people – two in Tete province, two in Sofala and one in Gaza. The country had therefore registered 528 recoveries and 11 deaths during the pandemic so far.

By Marta Afonso

Source: Carta de Moçambique