MISAU prepares epidemiological surveys for Maputo city and province

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MISAU prepares epidemiological surveys for Maputo city and province

1:23 CAT | 24 Jul 2020

File photo: Lusa

The Mozambican Ministry of Health (MISAU) will, in two weeks time, conduct Covid-19 epidemiological surveys in the city and province of Maputo, in response to the increasing number of cases of the new coronavirus, the institution has announced.

Quoted by the daily newspaper ‘Notícias’ today, national director of survey at the National Institute of Health of Mozambique (INS) Dr Sergio Chicumbe says that the surveys will focus on health professionals, public and private transporters, vendors in formal and informal markets, police officers and selected households in the neighbourhoods.

“This exercise will allow us to determine the epidemiological situation in the city and province of Maputo. We are organising the entire process and resources to start work in the next two weeks,” Dr Sergio Chicumbe said.

The survey is justified by the fact that the city and province of Maputo are experiencing a growth in new transmission chains.

“The strategy of active surveillance in health units and the tracing of contacts does not reveal the true dimensions of the pandemic,” the national director of survey at the INS said.

The survey will consist of rapid epidemiological tests for Covid-19, which do not detect the presence of the coronavirus at the time of their taking, but indicate whether or not the person has been exposed to the virus.

The result is revealed in 15 minutes, unlike the test for detecting the presence of the coronavirus, the results of which are known only after two days.

The city and province of Maputo, in the south of the country, are in second and third place in terms of the number of Covid-19 cases in Mozambique, with 183 and 191 cases respectively, and are only surpassed by the city of Nampula, in the north of the country, which has 241 cases, according to the figures on Thursday (July 23).

The cities of Nampula and Pemba, also in the north of the country, have already carried out epidemiological surveys, having been declared loci of community transmission.

From Wednesday to Thursday, Mozambique recorded an additional 25 positive cases of Covid-19, bringing the total to 1,582, with 11 deaths.