Mozambique still has only one Covid-19 patient: He neither requires hospitalisation nor is he the mayor of Maputo – A Verdade

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Mozambique still has only one Covid-19 patient: He neither requires hospitalisation nor is he the mayor of Maputo – A Verdade

12:26 CAT | 24 Mar 2020

Photo: A Verdade

Mozambique still has only one patient infected with the new Covid-19 coronavirus who, according to the National Director of Public Health, “has mild symptoms, and in this context, and according to World Health Organisation guidelines, his hospitalisation is not justified”. @Verdade also learned that Mozambique’s Patient Zero is not the mayor of Maputo City.

“In Mozambique, at the level of the National Health Institute, 55 suspected cases have been tested to date, nine of which in the last 24 hours. Of all the new suspected cases tested, all came back negative, so we continue to have only one positive case recorded in Mozambique, specifically in the City of Maputo,” Dr Rosa Marlene told a press conference this Monday (23), emphasising: “This is an imported case and not a local transmission”.

Cvav7 — *Source: World Health Organisation*

The National Director of Public Health also updated the number of people from countries with confirmed cases of Covid-19 who were screened at Mozambique’s various border posts to a cumulative total of 338,978 individuals, of whom the current number in quarantine is 699.

Regarding the first person in Mozambique with Covid-19, as announced on Sunday (22) by the Minister of Health, Dr. Marlene told reporters that Patient Zero was still at home. “He has mild symptoms, and in this context, and according to World Health Organisation guidelines, his hospitalisation is not justified,” she said.

“A total of 23 direct contacts [of Patient Zero] have been identified, all of whom are in quarantine at home, and all of whom are being monitored regularly by health authorities,” she added.

Eneas Comiche and delegation await results of Covid-19 tests

Coronavirus-comiche-londres — *Photo: AFP*

It has been wrongly suggested that the only infected person, identified as being a male person over 75 years of age and of Mozambican nationality, who returned to the country from a trip to the United Kingdom in the middle of this month, was the president of the Municipal Council of the City of Maputo.

Eneas Comiche was in the United Kingdom, participating in the March 10 Summit on Water and Climate in London and returned to Maputo on the 13th, apparently fitting the profile of Mozambique’s Patient Zero.

“On the 19th of March, the summit organisers informed the Maputo City Council that His Serene Highness, Prince Albert II of Monaco [another guest], took a Covid-19 test, and the results came back positive,” a press release from the Municipal Council of Maputo city indicated, adding that, upon their return, Comiche and members of his delegation all complied with “the border health protocol, at a time when the United Kingdom was not yet part of the countries that deserved special attention”.

Even so, Eneas Comiche and the members of his delegation “are in voluntary home quarantine following the protocol established by the Mozambican health authorities and (…) are in good health”.

@Verdade has established that the Maputo mayor and his delegation were tested for Covid-19 at the National Health Institute and are still waiting for the results.

By Adérito Caldeira

Source: A Verdade