Mozambique: Call to isolate Cabo Delgado – AIM report

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Mozambique: Call to isolate Cabo Delgado – AIM report

8:31 CAT | 24 Apr 2020

The government of the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado has proposed limiting the movement of people from the province to other parts of the country, in order to restrict the spread of the coronavirus that causes the respiratory disease Covid-19.

According to a report in the independent daily “O Pais”, the call was made by the Secretary of State for Cabo Delgado, Armindo Ngunga, at a meeting of the Operational Emergency Committee held last Monday in the provincial capital, Pemba.

“We will have to install some strengthened control posts between Cabo Delgado and the neighbouring provinces of Nampula and Niassa, so that the coronavirus does not leave here”, said Ngunga.

He was reacting to the fact that a majority of the diagnosed cases of the coronavirus in Mozambique – 22 out of 41 – come from Cabo Delgado.

But they are not spread across the entire province – they are concentrated at the camp of the French oil and gas company Total, on the Afungi Peninsula. The Afungi camp is already under stringent quarantine, and nobody may enter or leave without authorisation. Ngunga’s proposal is unlikely to improve the current situation.

Cabo Delgado has lengthy and porous borders with Nampula and Niassa. Policing them would be a headache at the best of times.

Meanwhile, in Maputo, the Municipal Council has declared its intention to produce about two million face masks for elderly people, children and other vulnerable social groups living in the capital, as part of the measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Launching the project on Wednesday, the mayor of Maputo, Eneas Comiche, said the Council was responding to the demand for masks. He regarded masks as an important protective instrument.

Comiche thought the pandemic provides an opportunity for society to organise itself into associations to alleviate the negative impact of the coronavirus. “We would like to see various contributions and initiatives from all those who seek to support the most vulnerable people with goods and services, so as to guarantee resilience”.

The masks will be made in training centres set up by the municipality in order to implement preventive measures against the pandemic.

Source: AIM