Mozambique: “Radical change in behaviour” needed to defeat Covid-19 – AIM report

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Mozambique: “Radical change in behaviour” needed to defeat Covid-19 – AIM report

8:15 CAT | 30 Sep 2020

Screen grab: MISAU

Mozambique’s Deputy National Director of Public Health, Benigna Matsinhe, on Monday [September 28] called for “a radical change of behaviour” by Mozambican citizens to block the advance of the Covid-19 pandemic,

Speaking at a Maputo press conference, Matsinhe pointed to a sharp acceleration of the pandemic in Mozambique. In the previous seven days, 1,071 people had been diagnosed with the disease, 37 people had been hospitalised in isolation wards, and 14 Covid-19 patients had lost their lives.

The rise in the number of cases, hospitalisations and deaths “could have a negative impact on people’s health, on the response capacity of the national health system, and on all sectors of activity that are beginning to return to normality”, she warned.

“We should all play our role in the fight against Covid-19 by complying strictly with all the prevention recommendations that we have been publicising and which are in the public domain”, said Matsinhe. These include such measures as wearing face masks in public places, avoiding crowds, practising social distancing and regular hand washing.

Matsinhe announced a further death from Covid-19. The latest victim is a 64 year old Mozambican man, hospitalised in a Maputo city health unit. He was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Sunday, but died later that day. This brings the total known death toll from Covid-19, since the start of the pandemic, to 59.

She added that, over the previous 24 hours, 11 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospital, but four others were admitted, all in Maputo city. Currently 45 patients are under medical care in Covid-19 isolation wards, one in Nampula and 44 in Maputo city. 27 of those hospitalised are men and 18 are women. Seven are under five years of age, and 20 are over 55 years old.

Matsinhe said that 18 of those in the isolation wards are moderately ill, 21 are in a serious condition and one is critically ill. These patients are suffering from a number of other pathologies in addition to Covid-19. 28.1 per cent of them have high blood pressure, and 25 per cent are diabetic.

Matsinhe said that, since the start of the pandemic, 135,407 people have been tested for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, 1,396 of them in the previous 24 hours. All these tests took place in public facilities.

Of the samples tested, 687 were from Maputo city, 211 from Maputo province, 209 from Zambezia, 131 from Tete, 75 from Sofala, 50 from Inhambane, 19 from Manica, nine from Niassa, and five from Gaza.

1,091 of the tests returned negative results, but 305 people tested positive for the coronavirus. This brings the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19, since the first case was diagnosed on 22 March, to 8,288.

302 of the new cases are Mozambicans, and three are foreigners (from India, Tanzania and Nigeria). 166 are men or boys and 139 are women or girls. 38 are children under 15 years of age and eight are over 65 years old, No age information was available for 14 cases.

The great majority of the new cases are from Maputo city (165) and Maputo province (76). Between them, Maputo city and province account for 79 per cent of the cases. There were also 41 cases from Zambezia, 12 from Tete, five from Gaza, four from Sofala and two from Manica.

In line with standard Ministry of Health procedure, all the new cases are in home isolation, and their contacts are being traced.

Over the same 24 hour period, a further 29 people made a full recovery from Covid-19 (ten in Tete, ten in Gaza and nine in Zambezia), This brings the total number of recoveries to 4,836 (58.3 per cent of all those diagnosed with the coronavirus),

As of Monday, the geographical distribution of all 8,288 positive cases, by the provinces where they were diagnosed, was as follows: Maputo city, 3,592; Maputo province, 1,463; Cabo Delgado, 706; Nampula, 581; Zambezia, 552; Gaza, 323; Tete, 299; Sofala, 223; Niassa, 223; Inhambane, 217; Manica, 109.

The key Covid-19 statistics for Mozambique are now: 8,288 confirmed cases, of whom 4,836 have made a complete recovery, and 3,389 are active cases, 63 Covid-19 patients have died, 59 from the disease and four from other causes.

Source: AIM