Mozambique: Health Ministry discusses coronavirus with donors – AIM report | Watch

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Mozambique: Health Ministry discusses coronavirus with donors – AIM report | Watch

8:51 CAT | 12 Mar 2020

Photo: Miramar

The Mozambican government puts the cost of preventing the spread of COVID-19, should an outbreak occur in the country, at slightly more than 4.8 million US dollars.

COVID-19 is the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan. To date, no cases of COVID-19 have been detected in Mozambique, but 17 cases have been confirmed in South Africa.

Speaking in Maputo on Wednesday, at a meeting with Mozambique’s cooperation partners, provincial health directors and representatives of private clinics, Health Minister Armindo Tiago said that 2.15 million dollars would be needed for medical equipment to treat those hospitalised with the disease, about 838,000 dollars for treating outpatients, 97,000 dollars for epidemiological surveillance equipment, and the rest for other operational costs and for contingencies.

The man goal of the meeting, Tiago said, was to refine a Coronavirus Preparation and Response Plan, in case COVID-19 does hit the country

The government, he added, is able to bear 30 per cent of the cost involved in implementing the plan, which envisages two possible scenarios. The first, low risk scenario, envisages that, in an initial phase, an outbreak would only infect 20 people, hospitalising ten of them and leading to one death.

But the second, high risk scenario envisages 1,000 people infected, 30 deaths and 200 to 400 patients hospitalised.

Tiago said the critical areas will be hospitalisation and isolation of those infected. The national health service, he added, was not designed to cope with diseases such as COVID-19, which require a high degree of isolation.

“We are used to putting patients in tents to cope with diseases such as cholera”, he said. “But in the case of the coronavirus, tents are no good, because they don’t provide enough space for isolation”.

The donors said they are ready to provide technical and financial support for the second scenario in the Coronavirus Support Plan.

United States Ambassador Dennis Hearne, said US government departments, including the Peace Corps and the Agency for International Development (USAID) could assist those infected. “Our team will work in close collaboration with the National Health Institute (INS)”, he said, “in a mission to redirect part of our resources and efforts to offer support”.

The European Union ambassador, Sanchez Benedito, also guaranteed financial and technical support, and recommended that the government set up a permanent channel of communication through which embassies and international organisations, as well as he government itself, can keep foreign citizens in the country informed of the measures adopted.

Mozambique Airlines (LAM) has warned that it may be forced to reduce the number of its flights because the COVID-19 pandemic is causing a significant decline in the number of passengers. On those routes where the decline has been sharpest, flight cancellations may occur.

LAM promises that it is willing to alter its passengers’ travel dates in cases where they have been given medical advice to rest and self-quarantine because of COVID-19.

Source: AIM / Miramar