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Mozambique: Samora Machel Junior announces he has Covid-19
7:38 CAT | 11 Jan 2021
File photo: Moçambique Online
Samora Machel Junior (“Samito”), the son of Mozambique’s first President, Samora Machel, has announced that he has fallen ill with the Covid-19 respiratory disease.
In a message published on Sunday on Facebook, Machel said that he went to an emergency ward in a Maputo health unit early in the morning of 1 January, suffering from a very high fever. Tests were done which showed that he had caught the virus SARS-CoV-2 – the scientific name for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19’
“I have been battling against this virus for nine days with the support of my family”. Machel wrote. “The symptoms have been constant fever, a cough, fatigue, loss of the sense of taste for several days, and loss of appetite”.
“Mozambicans and our state are at a critical moment in the fight against this pandemic”, he continued, “with the number of new cases increasing every day, with the positivity rate increasing, with the number of deaths increasing, and with the capacity of our health system, both public and private, coming under increasing pressure, which could lead to its collapse, if the situation does not improve rapidly”.
Machel agreed with the health officials who have blamed the sudden increase in Covid-19 cases with a general relaxation in the measures recommended by the government to prevent the spread of the disease. These measures include the use of masks, physical distancing (of at least 1.5 metres between individuals), avoiding close contact without facial protection for prolonged periods, and regular washing or disinfecting of hands.
Machel warned that ”our lack of personal responsibility will lead to an increasing number of infected people, an increasing number of people with moderate and severe symptoms, and a growing number of premature and absolutely avoidable deaths”.
He asked whether a party or a group drinking session “is worth the lives of our grandparents, our parents, our uncles, or those of our friends who already have a chronic illness which makes them vulnerable to Covid-19? Is it worth the consequences that the virus might leave in our bodies for years? Is it worth the complete breakdown of the capacity of our hospitals and our health staff to respond to any diseases at all?”
Covid-19 is transmitted person to person, he continued “and so it is in our hands to block its spread, by complying scrupulously with all the preventive measures. It is up to each of us to avoid any further infections, further hospitalisations, further deaths”.
For each new case or new death announced by the Health Ministry, “we will all be guilty”, Machel added.
He urged Mozambicans “not to wait for the Government to decree more drastic and restrictive measures before we change our behaviour”.
“We don’t need to wait for the government in order to behave as conscious and responsible citizens, in solidarity with others”. Machel concluded.
Source: AIM
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