Mozambique: Comiche has not yet been “informed” of his Covid 19 test result — family source | Carta

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Mozambique: Comiche has not yet been “informed” of his Covid 19 test result — family source | Carta

2:32 CAT | 27 Mar 2020

FILE- Maputo Mayor Eneas Comiche (third from left] sitting next to Prince Albert of Monaco attending the WaterAid charity's Water and Climate event on March 10, in London.. [File photo: AFP]

Maputo mayor, Eneas Comiche, has not yet been informed by the state health authorities (National Directorate of Public Health) of his Covid 19 status and thus whether he is Mozambique’s ‘Patient Zero’, a source close to the family has told ‘Carta de Moçambique’.

Eneas Comiche was tested on Friday of last week. On Sunday, the Minister of Health, Armindo Tiago, revealed that Mozambique’s first confirmed Covid-19 case was a Mozambican citizen, over 70 years of age, who had returned from London the day before.

This Monday, Comiche’s wife, Lúcia, was tested. The next day, Rosa Marlene, National Director of Public Health, announced that Mozambique’s third case of Covid 19 was a “female person, over 70 years of age, who had had contact with ‘Case 1’”.

But neither has Lúcia Comiche received the official results of the test, Carta’s source says. This omission, it adds, has begun to “upset the family”, mainly because the profile of the two cases seemed to refer to the couple, taking into account their age and recent return from London, where Comiche had been sitting at the table next to the Monegasque prince, Albert II, who announced his Covid-19 status after his return to Monaco.

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On Tuesday evening, Lúcia Comiche called STV, claiming that she was “the woman over 70, also infected”, but not at the initiative of the couple. The ‘Carta’ source said that it was a “gesture of revolt” by Lúcia in face of the health authorities’ silence. According to the source, Lúcia had deduced that she was the “one who was infected” on the basis of Marlene’s announcement.

The family had still not yet received the results of the tests yesterday evening, the source said. Yesterday, however, Comiche visited the Instituto do Coração (ICOR), a private hospital in Maputo. The trip to the hospital was at his own initiative, but an ICOR team went to pick him up from his house. ‘Carta’ was unable to ascertain the reason for his visit to ICOR.

The apparent reluctance of the health authorities to reveal the results of the tests has produced a logical consequence: the Maputo mayor is being crucified in the court of public opinion for his omission [to publicly speak of his health status]. It seems very likely that, in the next few days, Eneas Comiche will break his silence and say something about it.

By Marcelo Mosse

Source: Carta de Moçambique