Mozambique: Timely measures and partners’ support made it possible to control Covid-19 – WHO

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Mozambique: Timely measures and partners’ support made it possible to control Covid-19 – WHO

2:48 CAT | 17 Nov 2020

File photo: Lusa

The Covid-19 epidemic is under control in Mozambique, thanks to measures taken from the beginning and with the support of partners, the interim representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the country said today in an interview with Lusa.

“This epidemic here in Mozambique is under control. Just look at the mortality rate, which is only 0.8% [116 deaths out of 14,514 cases], because the measures taken have had an effect and the right resources have been channelled,” Tomás Valdez said.

In neighbouring countries, according to WHO figures, the rate varies from 2% to 4%.

“You cannot float the idea that, if nothing was done, we would be in the same situation. It is not true”, he replied, when asked if the numbers have justified the support requested and delivered by the country’s partners.

According to Valdez, “the situation is not serious, exactly because there were measures which were taken from the beginning by the country, with the support of partners, to flatten the curve of registered cases”.

The creation of in-patient centres, laboratories, training of health professionals and others (at the borders, for example), the acquisition of personal protective equipment and the more-than 200,000 tests performed, all benefited from external funding.

“This pandemic represents a huge additional effort” for the Mozambican health service, with the number of people screened surpassing three million, Valdez commented.

“A whole effort had to be developed” to achieve the current results, he said.

But, despite the encouraging numbers, now is not the time to relax prevention, he warns.

“If we look at the numbers in Mozambique and compare them with those of the WHO African region, we see that the indicators regarding the response to this pandemic have been quite good,” he said, something we should applaud.

Valdez highlighted, among the positive aspects, the percentage of infected among health professionals (5.7%) and the proportion of recovered patients (87%), “the same number as the average of the 47 countries in the WHO African region”, among which Mozambique is in 13th place with regard to the number of confirmed cases.

But the message is still “not to relax”. “Not to relax because this pandemic is not over yet.” In addition to institutional responsibilities, “there are others at the community, individual and family levels”.

Valdez says that Mozambique adopted measures in a “balanced” way between the sanitary and the economic-social crisis, highlighting the absence of a total lockdown.

The whole world hopes that there will soon be vaccines to end the pandemic, and Valdez says that Mozambique will benefit from mechanisms for “fair and equal sharing”.

At the start of the pandemic, Mozambique asked partners for US$700 million to address economic, health and social shocks.

In the last week, the Mozambican parliament has approved the amending State Budget of 2020, to include a reinforcement of support in the amount of US$314 million.

Mozambique had, by Monday, registered a cumulative total of 14,514 Covid-19 cases, with 86% recoveries and 116 deaths.

Source: Lusa