Health Ministry reports two more Covid-19 deaths – AIM report

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Health Ministry reports two more Covid-19 deaths – AIM report

4:40 CAT | 13 Aug 2020

in file CoM

The Mozambican health authorities yesterday reported two further deaths from the Covid-19 respiratory disease, bringing the total known death toll to 19.

According to a Wednesday press release from the Ministry of Health, one of the victims was a 34 year old Mozambican man who was admitted to the Manica Provincial Hospital, in the central city of Chimoio, on 5 August. He was already suffering from an unspecified serious illness, and died the following day.

He was tested for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 immediately after his admission. The hospital received the result of the test, that he was indeed infected with the coronavirus, on Monday, four days after his death.

The second death was that of a 75 year old Mozambican man in Maputo City. He was admitted to the intensive care unit of a private hospital on 28 July, suffering from chronic illnesses, including a serious respiratory disease. He was immediately tested for the coronavirus, but the positive result was only confirmed on 7 August. The release gave no explanation for this delay.

The patient’s general condition continued to worsen and on Sunday he was transferred to the isolation ward in the hospital in Polana-Canico neighbourhood. He did not improve, and he was declared dead on Wednesday morning.

The Ministry release announced that, since the start of the pandemic, 72,461 people have been tested for the coronavirus, 1,110 of them in the previous 24 hours. 682 samples were tested in public health units, and 428 in private laboratories. The private sector only analysed samples from Cabo Delgado (202) and from Maputo city (226).

Of all the samples tested, 401 were from Maputo city, 271 from Cabo Delgado, 152 from Maputo province, 96 from Sofala, 61 from Nampula, 61 from Zambezia, 20 from Gaza, 19 from Tete, 15 from Niassa, and 14 from Manica.

1,032 of the tests proved negative, and 78 were positive for the coronavirus. This brings the total number of positive cases in Mozambique, since the first case was diagnosed on 22 March, to 2,559. 77 of the new cases are Mozambicans and one is a Portuguese citizen.

44 of the cases are men or boys and 34 are women or girls. Eight are children under the age of 15, 11 are youths or adolescents aged between 15 and 24, 52 are adults aged between 25 and 64, and two are over 65 years old. In five cases, no information on age was available.

Confirming the rapid spread of the disease in the capital, 36 of the new cases are from Maputo city.

16 are from Gaza. 11 of the latter are from the town of Chokwe, which now has a sizeable cluster of Covid-19 cases, two are from the provincial capital, Xai-Xai, two are from the district of Guija, and one is from Bilene.

Eight are from Nampula city, and seven are from Pemba, capital of Cabo Delgado. Four cases are from Maputo province – three from Matola city and one from Moamba district. Three are from Tete – two from Tete city, and one from Maravia district.

There are also two cases from Lichinga, capital of Niassa, and two cases from Gurue district in Zambezia.

Following standard Ministry of Health procedure, all the new cases are under home isolation, and their contacts are being traced.

The release added that 58 Covid-19 patients have been hospitalized at some stage in their illness. Currently, 14 are hospitalised in isolation wards – nine in Maputo city, four in Beira and one in Nampula.

The Ministry added that, in the same 24 hour period, a further 41 people have made a full recovery from Covid-19 – 30 in Sofala, six in Zambezia, four in Maputo province and one in Gaza. This brings the total number of recoveries to 951 (37.16 per cent of all positive cases).

As of Wednesday, the geographical breakdown of the 2,559 positive cases, by the provinces where they were diagnosed, was as follows: Maputo city, 670; Cabo Delgado, 526; Maputo province, 466; Nampula, 461; Gaza, 132; Sofala, 90; Tete, 61; Zambezia, 50; Inhambane, 50; Niassa, 33; Manica, 20.

Inhambane remains the only province which has no active cases of Covid-19. All 50 patients diagnosed there have made a full recovery.

The key Covid-19 statistics for Mozambique on Wednesday (August 12) were: 2,559 confirmed cases, of whom 951 have made a complete recovery, and 1,587 are active cases. 21 Covid-19 patients have died, 19 from the disease itself, and two from other pathologies.

Source: AIM