Mozambique: Four Covid-19 deaths and 824 new cases reported on Tuesday – AIM report

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Mozambique: Four Covid-19 deaths and 824 new cases reported on Tuesday – AIM report

4:50 CAT | 20 Jan 2021

File photo: Lusa

The Mozambican health authorities on Tuesday reported a further 824 cases of the Covid-19 respiratory disease.

Tuesday thus recorded the third highest number of cases in a 24 hour period since the Mozambican epidemic began on 22 March last year, surpassed only by Monday (895 cases) and 9 January (879).

According to a press release from the Ministry of Health, four more deaths from Covid-19 were reported on Tuesday, two in Maputo city and two in Maputo province. Two were male and two female and their ages varied between two months and 84 years. Thus one of the dead was an infant, but the release did not state whether this victim was a boy or a girl.

One of the deaths occurred on Sunday and three on Monday. This brings the total Covid-19 death toll in Mozambique to 253.

The Ministry said that, since the start of the pandemic, 308,913 people have been tested for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, 2,569 of them in the previous 24 hours. Of the samples tested, 1,178 were from Maputo city, 412 from Cabo Delgado, 260 from Maputo province, 193 from Inhambane, 155 from Nampula, 128 from Gaza, 115 from Zambezia, 69 from Sofala, 32 from Tete, 22 from Manica and five from Niassa.

1,745 of the tests gave negative results and 824 people tested positive for the coronavirus. Thus 32 per cent of all those tested proved positive for the virus. This brings the total number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in Mozambique to 28,270.

Of the new cases, 792 are known to be Mozambicans, while the nationalities of the other 32 have not yet been confirmed. 436 are women or girls and 388 are men or boys. 61 are children under 15 years of age, and 44 are over 65 years old. 471 are adults aged between 25 and 54. For 31 cases, no age information was available.

Almost half the cases – 411 – came from Maputo city, and 104 from Maputo province. Thus Maputo city and province accounted for 62.5 per cent of all the cases reported on Tuesday. There were also 88 cases from Inhambane, 69 from Gaza, 69 from Zambezia, 34 from Sofala, 20 from Nampula, 14 from Tete, ten from Cabo Delgado and five from Manica.

The Ministry also reported that 22 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospital in the same 24 hour period (16 in Maputo city, five in Zambezia, and one in Tete). But 24 new patients were admitted (14 in Maputo city, two in Maputo province, six in Tete and two in Gaza).

Currently, there are 215 people under medical care in the Covid-19 isolation wards. 167 of these (78 per cent) are in Maputo city. There are also 11 patients in Tete, ten in Nampula, six in Matola, six in Zambezia, five in Manica, four in Sofala, three in Gaza, two in Inhambane and one in Cabo Delgado. Niassa remains the only province where no Covid-19 patients are hospitalised.

While most provinces still have plenty of intensive care beds for Covid-19 patients, in Maputo city the shortage of space is becoming critical. The private clinics that care for Covid-19 patients are full to capacity, and more space can only be made available in Maputo Central Hospital by erecting tents in the grounds.

The main Covid-19 health unit in the capital is the Polana Canico general hospital which has 120 beds for Covid-19 patients, of which 83 are currently occupied. A further 156 beds, all linked to oxygen supplies, are being made ready in the Mavalane general hospital.

The Ministry release said that, in the previous 24 hours, 252 people made a full recovery from Covid-19 (85 in Inhambane, 56 in Tete, 50 in Manica, 42 in Cabo Delgado and 19 in Zambezia). This brings the total number of recoveries to 19,132 – which is 67.7 per cent of all those diagnosed in Mozambique with the coronavirus.

The number of active cases of Covid-19 has risen to 8,881 – the largest recorded to date. The geographical distribution is as follows: Maputo city, 4,284 (48.2 per cent of the total); Maputo province, 1,503; Sofala, 517; Inhambane, 464; Manica, 461; Zambezia, 453; Gaza, 371; Niassa, 296; Nampula, 248; Cabo Delgado, 216; Tete, 88.

Source: Lusa