Mozambique: Heath to decontaminate Total facilities in Afungi, where there are 47 patients and almost 1,000 suspected cases – A Verdade

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Mozambique: Heath to decontaminate Total facilities in Afungi, where there are 47 patients and almost 1,000 suspected cases – A Verdade

2:17 CAT | 27 Apr 2020

Image: A Verdade / Graphics by Nuno Teixeira

The director general of INS revealed on Sunday (26) that almost a thousand Total workers and subcontractors on the Afungi Peninsula are to be tested. The only [detected] active transmission chain in Mozambique, five more cases were reported there on Sunday.

Coronavirus2604-rmarlene — *Photo: A Verdade*

Mozambique’s 76th Covid-19 case is a child, the daughter of a resident of Pemba who contracted the coronavirus from professional contact with a patient in Afungi.

@Verdade has learned that ideas of isolating Cabo Delgado province, in addition to being unreasonable on socio-economic grounds, will have little epidemiological effect, since more than 2,000 people left the French oil camp in the week in which the “Afungi index case” was identified.

After a week in which 35 new Covid-19 patients were diagnosed in Mozambique, more than twice as many as in all previous weeks, the number of those infected continues to increase. Of 68 more tests performed by the INS, six new patients were diagnosed – five Mozambicans and one South African, all without symptoms and therefore in isolation at home in Cabo Delgado, where there were 54 patients.

Of the tests carried out over the weekend, 50 were from Cabo Delgado, one from Maputo city, five from Maputo province and 13 from Inhambane, Of the tests carried out between Friday and Saturday, 53 were from Maputo city, eight from Maputo province and 75 from Cabo Delgado.

Concerning the six new cases reported yesterday, the National Director of Health Dr Rosa Marlene said: “Three are male, two in the 25 to 34 age group and one in the 45 to 59 age group. Three are female, one in the 5 to 14 age group, therefore the first child we diagnosed, and two in the 15 to 24 age group.”

Marlene revealed that the child is in isolation at home in the city of Pemba and “is the daughter of a positive case related to another case of Afungi”.

First infected Total worker is cured

Also at the press conference this Sunday (26th) covering the week to the 25th of April, Dr Ilesh Vinodrai Jani indicated that “the [infection] curve in Mozambique is one of the smallest in the region (Southern Africa)”, although the country last week registered as many positive cases as in the previous four weeks (35). Of those diagnosed during the week 19 to 24 April, 34 are male, 19 are foreigners, 30 are without symptoms and 14 are between 10 and 39 years of age.

Coronavirus2604-sumtestados — *Source: National Institute of Health*

Analysing the profile of all 76 infected persons, the director general of the INS pointed out that “the majority are male, are Mozambican individuals (…) and 75 percent of our cases are asymptomatic, 23 percent with mild symptoms and two percent have moderate symptoms. There are still 383 contacts in follow-up”.

Coronavirus2604-sumperfil — Source: National Institute of Health

“The person who was reported recovered this week is our Afungi index case,” Dr Jani revealed, regarding the 10th confirmed case, announced on April 1st and the first Total worker to be diagnosed – after whom another 66 infected workers were identified.

“We will see an increase in the number of positive cases” in Cabo Delgado province

Although the head of the National Health Institute has once again underlined that “the first cases in Afungi were imported, and a complex transmission chain started thereafter”, @Verdade found that the increasingly popular desire to isolate Cabo province, in addition to being unreasonable on socio-economic grounds and because of the lack of community transmission, have will little containment effect, since at least 2,500 people left the premises of the French oil company in the week in which the “Afungi index case” was identified.

Coronavirus2604-ilesh00 — *Photo: A Verdade*

In an effort to contain the pandemic at the Total facilities on the Afungi peninsula, the head of Mozambican epidemiologists announced that “as of tomorrow (Monday April 27), the deputy general director of the National Institute of Health, Dr Samo Gudo, will travel to the District of Palma, where he will continue the investigation and also work on the decontamination process for all camps ”. There are at least 800 workers from Total and from partner and subcontracting companies in the three camps.

“There is active transmission in the Afungi camps, and we need a process of mass testing, isolation and decontamination. It is a process that will take at least two to three weeks (…) and we will definitely see an increase in the number of positive cases,” Dr Jani warned.

Just over one month after the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in Mozambique, “the balance is generally positive, but the chain of transmission may spread quickly. This child is an example of how the virus is transmitted within families, and that is why we need to continue to be extremely careful and comply with the social exclusion and hygiene rules laid down by the government”.

By Aderito Caldeira

Source: A Verdade