Mozambique | Covid-19: Vaccination reaches 57 per cent of target

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Mozambique | Covid-19: Vaccination reaches 57 per cent of target

10:12 CAT | 21 Jan 2022

Photo: Noticias

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi declared on Wednesday night that, since the start of the national vaccination campaign in March, 57 per cent of the target population (all people aged 18 and above) have been vaccinated against the Covid-19 respiratory disease.

Addressing the nation on the current state of the Covid-19 pandemic, Nyusi stressed that vaccination is vital for avoiding the worst consequences of Covid-19, including hospitalization and death.

In the previous six days, he said, 31 people had died from Covid-19. 28 of them were not vaccinated at all, two had taken just one dose of the vaccine, and only one was fully vaccinated.

Such figures showed how crucial vaccination is – but Nyusi stressed it should be complemented with other measures, such as regular washing of hands, wearing of masks, and social distancing.

The Wednesday press release from the Ministry of Health said that, in the previous 24 hours, a further 114,012 people had been vaccinated against Covid-19. This brought the total number of people fully vaccinated against the disease to 8,648,564, while 10,471,943 had received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Nyusi also announced that the government is introducing booster doses of vaccine, aimed in the first instance at health workers, and at people aged over 60. Other priorities for receiving boosters will be pregnant women and people suffering from auto-immune conditions, diabetics, and others regarded as chronically ill. There are also plans to extend Covid-19 vaccination to children aged between 15 and 18.

Nyusi announced that most of the restrictive measures announced in December will remain in effect for a further 30 days, but several are being relaxed with immediate effect. Thus the period of obligatory quarantine for people known to have been in contact with those infected with Covid-19 has been reduced from 14 to seven days.

The government has also opened all the beaches to the public. Previously 22 of the most popular beaches were closed, but now all beaches will be open from 05.00 to 16.00 every day. But the bans on gathering in large numbers, and on drinking alcohol on the beaches remain in force. Nyusi warned that any abuses will lead to the government closing the beaches again.

Restrictions on the opening hours of shops and other commercial establishments have been lifted, and they may now operate according to the normal working hours laid down by the Ministry of Labour. Those hours are as follows:

Restaurants and bars: 05.00 to 21.00

Bakeries: 05.00 to 20.00

Cafes and snack bars: 06.00 to 21.00

Shopping centres: 09.00 to 20.00

Other retailers and service providers: 08.00 to 18.00

Bottle stores: 09.00 to 20.00

The number of recoveries from Covid-19 is continuing to exceed the number of new cases, with resulting declines in the positivity rate (the percentage of people tested found to be infected with the coronavirus that causes Covid-19) and of the number of active cases.

The Ministry’s Wednesday press release reported 1,484 recoveries (901 in Maputo city, 441 in Tete, 93 in Zambezia and 49 in Cabo Delgado). The total number of recoveries now stands at 194,629, which is 88.1 per cent of all those ever diagnosed with Covid-19 in Mozambique.

Since the start of the pandemic, 1,191,681 people have been tested for the coronavirus, 3,776 of them in the previous 24 hours. 3,109 of these tests gave negative results, and 667 people tested positive for the virus. This brings the number of Covid-19 cases diagnosed in Mozambique to 220,908. The positivity rate fell from 20.48 per cent on Tuesday to 17.66 per cent – below the alert level of 20 per cent.

Of the new cases identified on Wednesday, 362 were women and 305 were men. 94 were under the age of 15. The largest number of new cases were from Zambezia (169 – 25.3 per cent) and Maputo city (95 – 14.2 per cent). There were also 74 cases from Maputo province, 68 from Gaza, 58 from Inhambane, 50 from Sofala, 43 from Niassa, 33 from Cabo Delgado, 29 from Tete, 28 from Manica, and 20 from Nampula.

Over the same 24 hour period, 22 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospital (10 in Maputo, five in Sofala, four in Manica, and one each in Niassa, Inhambane and Gaza), while 14 new cases were admitted (five in Niassa, four in Tete, three in Maputo, one in Manica and one in Gaza).

The number of people under medical care in the Covid-19 treatment centres fell from 152 on Tuesday to 140 on Wednesday. 63 of these patients (45 per cent) were in Maputo. There were also 15 patients in Manica,14 in Niassa, 11 in Nampula, eight in Inhambane, eight in Gaza, seven in Tete, six in Matola, four in Zambezia, three in Sofala, and one in Cabo Delgado.

The Ministry release reported a further four deaths from Covid-19 – two women and two men, aged between 31 and 88. Three of the victims died in Maputo and one in Gaza. This brings the total Covid-19 death toll in Mozambique to 2,140.

The number of active cases of Covid-19 fell from 24,956 on Tuesday to 24,135 on Wednesday. The geographical distribution of the active cases was as follows: Maputo province, 6,883 (28.5 per cent of the total); Maputo city, 6,034; Manica, 2,348; Niassa, 1.657; Zambezia, 1,560; Inhambane, 1,450; Gaza, 1,382; Cabo Delgado, 846; Nampula, 712; Tete, 675; and Sofala, 588.

Source: AIM