Covid-19: WHO changes description of pandemic in Mozambique – MISAU Saturday report

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Covid-19: WHO changes description of pandemic in Mozambique – MISAU Saturday report

5:17 CAT | 17 May 2020

Photo: INS

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has changed its classification of the coronavirus situation in Mozambique from one of “an epidemic with sporadic cases” to “an epidemic with foci of transmission”.

According to the National Director of Public Health, Rosa Marlene, this change is due to “the occurrence of new and scattered chains of transmission in various parts of the country”.

Speaking in Maputo on Saturday, at the Health Ministry’s daily press conference on the pandemic, Marlene said that to date 5,735 suspected coronavirus cases have been tested, 374 of them in the previous 24 hours.

ALSO READ: Mozambique: 137 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 44 recoveries

Of these cases, 151 were from Maputo province, 109 from Maputo city, 100 from the northern province of Cabo Delgado, 11 from Sofala, two from Manica and one from Gaza.

364 of these cases were negative, but ten tested positive for the respiratory disease Covid-19, caused by the coronavirus. Four of these cases are imported – two of them were Mozambicans who had recently returned from South Africa, and two had been on an Ethiopian Airways flight repatriating Mozambicans.

Four of the cases were from Maputo city, including the two who had returned from South Africa. The other two were a Mozambican and a Portuguese, both men, who work at Maputo port, where an investigation into the spread of coronavirus is under way.

Two cases were diagnosed in Maputo province – one was a 35 year old woman in Boane district, who had travelled on the Ethiopian Airways flight, and the second was also a 35 year old woman, who lives in Matola city.

In Gaza a 35 year old man, also a passenger on the Ethiopian airways flight tested positive. There were two new cases in Sofala, both of whom had returned from South Africa – a 26 year old man in Chibabava district, and a 27 year old man in Buzi district.

In the Cabo Delgado town of Palma, a 28 year old man tested positive. This is the sixth case in Palma town. It is doubtful whether these cases have any direct connection with the largest Covid-19 cluster so far discovered in Mozambique, which is at the camp operated by the French oil and gas company Total in the Afungi Peninsula, a few kilometres from Palma town.

ALSO READ: Watch: Number of COVID-19 cases in Mozambique rose to 129 on Saturday

Marlene said that all ten of the new cases are now undergoing home isolation, while health staff are tracing their contacts. Seven of the cases are asymptomatic, while the other three display slight to moderate symptoms. None have been hospitalised.

She also announced that one of the earlier cases diagnosed at Afungi, a 23 year old Mozambican man, has made a complete recovery, bringing to 43 the number of Covid-19 patients who have recovered.

Thus, as of Saturday, the main statistics for Covid-19 in Mozambique are: 129 confirmed cases, 43 of which have made a full recovery, and 86 are active cases. There have been no deaths from Covid-19. 20 of the cases were imported, and 109 are the result of local transmission.

The geographical spread of the positive cases is now: Cabo Delgado, 81; Maputo City, 27; Maputo province, 10; Sofala, eight; Inhambane, two; Gaza, one.

Marlene noted that one of the cases in Matola reported on Friday is a worker at a branch of the country’s largest commercial bank, the Millennium-BIM. That bank branch has now been closed for disinfection, and all the worker’s contacts are being traced.

Marlene said that banks, like shops and supermarkets, should take measures to protect their workers, including social distancing between workers and clients, washing the hands of workers and users, the obligatory wearing of face masks, and regular disinfection of all surfaces (including counters, handrails, cash machines, and office furniture).