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Mozambique: “Life will not be returning to normal after April 30th” – Doctor Ilesh Jani
3:02 CAT | 20 Apr 2020
Image: A Verdade / Graphics by Nuno Teixeira
Adressing the question on everybody’s mind – will we return to normal life at the end of this month? Director-General of the National Institute of Health (INS) Ilesh Jani said that, although he expects that “all 39 of our (Covid-19) cases will recover”, the answer is no.
Meanwhile, a further four positive cases of the new coronavirus were diagnosed on Sunday (19th), all in the province of Cabo Delgado, bringing the cumulative number of cases to 39. The good news is that, on Sunday, four more recoveries, in Maputo city, were also announced.
“To date, April 19, 2020, in Mozambique, 1,037 suspected cases have been tested, 85 of them in the last 24 hours. Of the new cases tested, 81 were negative and four were positive for the coronavirus. Therefore, our country currently has 39 positive cases, 31 of which are local and 8 imported. The new positive cases are related to the ongoing investigation in Cabo Delgado, with two in Afungi and the other two in the city of Pemba,” National Director of Public Health Rosa Marlene said on Sunday, in the latest update.
Of the new record number of tests carried out by the National Institute of Health, 41 were of suspected cases in Cabo Delgado, 13 in Inhambane, 28 in Maputo city, two in Gaza province and one in Zambezia province.
“The first positive case is of a male person, of Mozambican nationality, over 40 years of age, residing in Afungi who was in contact with a confirmed case. The second case is of a male person, of South African nationality, with more than 30 years of age who was in contact with confirmed cases in Cabo Delgado. This case was registered in the city of Pemba,” Dr Marlene told the press conference.
“The third case is that of a male person, over 40 years of age, of South African nationality, who was in contact with confirmed cases in Cabo Delgado. This case was registered in the city of Pemba. The fourth positive case is that of an American male, over 40 years of age, who maintained contact with one of the confirmed cases in Cabo Delgado. This case was registered in the city of Pemba,” she continued.
“All the new cases described here present symptoms and, therefore, are in isolation at home. At this moment, the process of mapping the contacts of these cases is taking place.”
@Verdade learned that, of the 39 infected in Mozambique, 26 are workers at the French oil company Total, which leads the Mozambique LNG natural gas project in Area 1 of the Rovuma Basin.
The good news is that Mozambique has four more confirmed recoveries. “Thus, we currently have a cumulative total of eight cases recovered. This means that, at present, our country has 31 active cases,” Rose Marlene said.
“Our expectation is that all our 39 cases will be cases which will recover”
Four weeks after the first case of the novel coronavirus was diagnosed in Mozambique, the director general of the INS summarised the epidemiological situation.
“We are, for now, in a pandemic {situation] like in other countries in the region, except for South Africa. But the example of other (SADC) countries shows that, after a certain point, the number of cases increases, as in the case of Tanzania, which is very similar to that of Mozambique,” she said, while not ruling out the existence of undiagnosed cases.
Dr. Ilesh Vinodrai Jani revealed to journalists in Maputo that 82 percent of Covid-19 patients were male, and aged between 10 and 49. Two thirds are Mozambican nationals and none have severe symptoms, with five percent showing only mild symptoms.
“From the 39 positive cases diagnosed, 440 contacts were identified. Each case had on average more than 10 contacts. A very large number of these contacts – 314 – are being followed up and 126 have been discharged, either due to lack of symptoms or after testing,” Dr. Jani explained.
“As most of our (positive) cases are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, what will happen in the next few days is that, as time goes by and tests are carried out, we will declare individuals recovered. Our expectation is that all of 39 of our Covid-19 cases will recover.”
“We will not be returning to normal life from April 30th”
Asked by @Verdade if, at midnight on April 30, the state of emergency would end and Mozambicans would be able to leave their homes and return to work and school, the Director-General of the National Institute of Health, who holds a Ph.D. in immunology at the University of London, left no illusions.
“I don’t think so. Our (epidemiological) curve continues to record cases. The government will soon decide on what containment measures will be implemented during the month of May, but we will not be returning to normal life..
“Look at what happens in many countries with Stage 3 measures. Either Stage 4 measures are implemented or Stage 3 measures continue. In some countries after several weeks of Stage 3 measures, slightly looser measures have been implemented, but life does not return to normal, and I don’t believe that we here in Mozambique will return to normal life as of April 30,” he said.
However, Dr. Jani had some hope that, depending on Mozambicans’ respect for the state of emergency measures, a lockdown could be avoided.
“We understand that the Stage 3 measures enacted require each of us to limit our movements to the absolutely essential. At this moment we have no evidence of community transmission of the virus. All the cases that we have diagnosed so far are related to sporadic transmission chains, such as the transmission chain related to the index case in Afungi. We have blocked other sporadic transmission chains we have identified through processes of quarantine and isolation of positive cases.”
“So at this point, we continue to say that people should limit their movements to what is essential so as to avoid implementing Stage 4 measures. The implementation of Stage 4 measures in a country like Mozambique would be catastrophic for the most vulnerable layer of our population,” Mozambique’s chief epidemiologist declared.
By Adérito Caldeira
Source: A Verdade
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