Mozambique: City of Pemba to carry out seroepidemiological survey

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Mozambique: City of Pemba to carry out seroepidemiological survey

3:39 CAT | 06 Jul 2020

Photo: eglobal

Mozambique’s ministry of health on Monday initiating a seroepidemiological survey of Covid-19 in the city of Pemba, capital of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, said the country’s national institute of health (INS).

The head of the Research Regulation and Promotion Department at the INS, Nédio Mabunda, told the public broadcaster Radio Mozambique that the survey will focus on 4,000 people in Pemba city among health professionals, police officers, market vendors, road hauliers and families.

“The aim is to know the profile of people infected by the new coronavirus and to adopt the best approaches to stop the spread of the disease,” said Nédio Mabunda.

The survey will last eight days and aims to prevent the worsening of Covid-19 in the northern city of Pemba, the second place to record community transmission in Mozambique, after the city of Nampula.

In the city of Nampula, preliminary results of the seroepidemiological survey revealed that the 13 districts of the city are “affected” by the pandemic, which also affects all professional groups.

The survey was carried out on 6,272 people and consisted of rapid seroepidemiological tests for Covid-19, which do not detect the presence of the new coronavirus at the time it was carried out, but indicate whether the person has been exposed to the virus.

The result is revealed in 15 minutes, unlike the test for the detection of the new coronavirus, whose result is known in two days.

The survey conducted in the city of Nampula indicates that the new coronavirus affects all age groups in the city, with adolescents, youths and adults being the most affected.

Mozambique announced on Sunday the eighth death caused by the new coronavirus, a 17-year-old girl with congenital and respiratory diseases, the health ministry said in a statement.

The patient was undergoing treatment for the comorbidities that determined her admission and the death occurred in the early hours of Saturday, from the isolation room of Maputo Central Hospital, the health authorities said.

From Saturday to Sunday, Mozambique tested 627 suspected cases and 18 tested positive for infection with the new coronavirus, and the country now has a cumulative of 987 patients, 270 of whom have recovered.

The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed more than 530,000 lives and infected more than 11.2 million people in 196 countries and territories, according to a report by the French agency AFP.

Source: Lusa