Mozambique has no suspected COVID-19 cases, but 215 remain quarantined

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique has no suspected COVID-19 cases, but 215 remain quarantined

12:39 CAT | 24 Feb 2020

FILE: For illustration purposes only. [File photo: World Health Organisation]

Since the outbreak was declared 56 days ago, there have been 2,445 deaths from the COVID-19 coronavirus, 17 of them outside China.

There is only notified one patient in Africa, but the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Saturday (22) that health systems on the African continent were ill-prepared to face the epidemic.

Authorities in Mozambique have screened more than 113,000 travellers, of all nationalities, since 22 January, of which 215 have subsequently been quarantined.

The largest public health emergency of the day had, by this Sunday (23) produced 78,811 diagnosed cases worldwide, including 77,042 in China, with a total of 2,445 dead. A further 17 deaths occurred in the 28 countries and territories outside mainland China to which the disease has already spread.

Iran has registered 18 patients, with five deaths in two days, increasing the concern of the WHO, whose director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at a press briefing on Friday (21): “The window of opportunity may be closing. Although the total number of cases outside China remains relatively small, we are concerned about the number of cases with no clear epidemiological link, such as travel history to China or contact with a confirmed case.”

Addressing a meeting of African health ministers at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa by video link from Geneva on Saturday, Tedros called on African Union member states “to come together to be more aggressive in attacking” the virus. “Our biggest concern continues to be the potential for COVID-19 to spread in countries with weaker health systems,” he added.

If COVID-19 starts to spread on the continent, African health systems will struggle to treat patients suffering from symptoms such as respiratory failure, septic shock and multi-organ failure, Tedros noted.

So far, 200 suspected cases have been detected in Africa, almost all of which have subsequently tested negative for the disease, but last week the first case on the African continent was confirmed, in Egypt.

As a result of their direct air links with China, the WHO in January declared South Africa, Mauritius, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Algeria, Angola, Costa d’Ivoire and Democratic Republic of Congo as countries at high risk of witnessing coronavirus outbreaks.

Several African airlines, including Kenya Airways, have suspended flights to China, but Ethiopian Airlines, the largest airline operating on the continent, has maintained its connections.

Since last January 22, health authorities in Mozambique have started screening all travellers from China, regardless of their nationality.

Up to the 19th of February, a cumulative total of 113,674 passengers had been screened, 483 of them from China. These latter were advised to remain in voluntary home quarantine, subject to daily monitoring by health professionals, the Ministry of Health has indicated.

Last week, 215 travellers in voluntary home quarantine were being monitored in Mozambique: 152 in Maputo City, 41 in Cabo Delgado Province, nine in Sofala Province, six in Nampula Province, four in Maputo Province and three in Zambezia Province.

The National Institute of Health revealed that it had the capacity to test up to 500 samples at its virology and biology laboratories, and that 35 laboratory technicians and clinicians trained to collect, store and transport samples were at work in Tete, Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Sofala provinces.

By Aderito Caldeira

ALSO READ: No confirmed coronavirus cases in Mozambique

Source: A Verdade