Mozambique: Three more Covid-19 patients diw (Thursday brief) – AIM report

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Mozambique: Three more Covid-19 patients diw (Thursday brief) – AIM report

5:36 CAT | 21 Aug 2020

Photo: MISAU

The Mozambican Health Ministry on Thursday announced the deaths of three more people suffering from the Covid-19 respiratory disease.

Speaking at a Maputo press conference, the National Director of Public Health, Rosa Marlene, said that one of the deaths was due to Covid-19, but that the other two victims, although infected by the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, died of other causes.

The man who died of Covid-19 was a 40 year old Mozambican who was admitted to Maputo Central Hospital on 13 August, suffering from a serious respiratory illness. He was tested for the coronavirus on the day of his admission, and was then transferred to the isolation ward in the General Hospital in the Maputo neighbourhood of Polana-Canico. His condition did not improve, and he died on Tuesday.

As for the other two Covid-19 patients, one was a 43 year old man, admitted on 14 August to the Intensive Care Unit in Maputo Central Hospital, because of injuries suffered in a hit-and-run traffic accident. He was tested for the coronavirus and the result was positive. But his death, on Tuesday, was due to his injuries.

The second was a 72 year old woman suffering from an unspecified pathology. She underwent surgery in Maputo Central Hospital on 6 August, and then tested positive for the coronavirus. She was transferred to the Polana-Canico isolation ward, but died on Thursday morning. Her death is attributed to her prior illness, rather than to Covid-19.

Marlene said that, since the start of the pandemic, 82,264 people have been tested for the coronavirus, 1.351 of them in the previous 24 hours. 599 of these tests were undertaken in public facilities, and 742 in private laboratories.

As has become normal, the private laboratories only tested samples from Cabo Delgado (517) and from Maputo city (235). Of all the samples tested, 590 were from Cabo Delgado, 480 from Maputo city, 93 from Sofala, 82 from Nampula, 65 from Maputo province, 27 from Manica, ten from Gaza, and four from Tete.

1.281 of these samples tested negative, and 70 were positive for Covid-19. This brings the total number of positive cases, since the first case was diagnosed on 22 March, to 3.115. All the new cases are Mozambican. 44 are men or boys and 26 are women or girls. Five are children under the age of 15, five are youths and adolescents in the 15-24 age bracket, 58 are adults aged between 25 and 64, and one is over 65 years old. In one case, the age was not specified.

Over half – 38 – of the new cases are from Maputo city, and 17 are from Maputo province (13 from Matola city, and four from Marracuene district). These figures once again confirm that Maputo city and province are now the areas worst hit by the pandemic.

Six cases are from the Manica provincial capital. Chimoio, and four cases are from Cabo Delgado (two from the provincial capital, Pemba, and two from Montepuez district). Three are from Nampula (two from Nacala-a-Velha district and one from Meconta), and two cases are from the Gaza district of Guija.

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

Marlene added that 64 Covid-19 patients have been treated in isolation wards at one stage or other of their illness. Currently, 11 people are under treatment in the isolation wards, seven in Maputo city, three in Beira and one in Gaza.

In the same 24 hour period, 89 more patients made a full recovery from Covid-19 – 44 in Cabo Delgado, 29 in Maputo province, 15 in Gaza and one in Zambezia. This brings the total number of recoveries to 1,380 (44.3 per cent of all positive cases).

As of Thursday, the geographical distribution of all positive cases, by the provinces where they were diagnosed, was as follows: Maputo city, 972; Maputo province, 567; Cabo Delgado, 541; Nampula, 485; Gaza, 155; Sofala, 120; Tete, 65; Manica, 63; Zambezia, 55; Inhambane, 54; Niassa, 38.

Thus, the basic Covid-19 statistics for Mozambique are now: 3,115 confirmed cases, of whom 1,380 have made a complete recovery, and 1,711 are active cases. 24 Covid-19 patients have died, 20 from the disease itself and four from other causes.

Marlene warned that the government’s relaxation of some of the restrictive measures imposed under the state of emergency “does not reflect a reduction in the risk of contamination or an improvement in the Covid-19 situation in Mozambique”.

The relaxation “essentially seeks to find a balance between health and the economy. So we are maintaining – now with even more vigour – our appeal to comply strictly with all the measures to prevent Covid-19”.

Marlene insisted that before places of worship, or educational institutions can be reopened, “they should be inspected and approved by the relevant authorities”.

Source: AIM