Saturday, May 16 2020: Community transmission; Covid-19 cases spread to Chibabava and Boane, 2 more Maputo port workers diagnosed – A Verdade

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Saturday, May 16 2020: Community transmission; Covid-19 cases spread to Chibabava and Boane, 2 more Maputo port workers diagnosed – A Verdade

11:38 CAT | 18 May 2020

Photo: A Verdade

The Covid-19 pandemic is spreading in Mozambique. This Saturday (16), a new focus was identified in the Chibabava district, Sofala province, and another in Boane municipality, in Maputo province. In addition, two more Port of Maputo workers tested positive. By Saturday, with 109 of the 129 cases infected locally, community transmission of the new coronavirus was increasingly evident. In addition, the health authorities revealed that none of the more than half a thousand Mozambicans repatriated from South Africa had been tested before deportation to our country.

National Director of Public Health Dr Rosa Marlene announced on Saturday that, up until May 16, 2020, “5,735 suspected cases were tested in Mozambique, 374 on Friday and Saturday. Of the new suspected cases tested in the National Health Institute laboratory, 364 came back negative and ten positive for Covid-19. Of the samples tested in these 24 hours, 100 were from Cabo Delgado, two from Manica, 11 from Sofala, one from Gaza, 151 from Maputo Province and 109 from Maputo city”.

Nine of the ten newly infected reported on Saturday are Mozambican nationals, and one Portuguese. Three presented mild to moderate symptoms and seven had no symptoms.

Four of Saturday’s new patients are in Maputo city, “two male individuals, 32 and 56 years old. These cases come from research carried out in the Port of Maputo; two male individuals, 29 and 32 years old. These are returnees from South Africa,” Dr Marlene recounted, also announcing that a newly infected person in Matola city was a 35-year-old female, whose source of infection has not been identified.

“With regard to the Port of Maputo, testing has not yet ended. Samples were collected from around 60 workers and the test results are coming through. The individual of Portuguese nationality (who tested positive) is among those tested in Maputo port,” Dr Marlene clarified.

Dr Marlene also announced a new outbreak of the pandemic in Boane municipality, where a 35-year-old female, who arrived in Mozambique on 8 May on a scheduled Ethiopian Airlines flight, tested positive for the disease. Another passenger on the same plane, a 35-year-old male, tested positive in Gaza province.

In Sofala province, where the baby who tested positive on May 11 had by Saturday not yet been located, two more positive cases were identified: a 27-year-old male returned from South Africa in Búzi district, and a new focus in Chibabava district, where a 26-year-old male, who had also returned from South Africa, tested positive.

Meanwhile, the National Director for the Health Survey and Monitoring Area clarified, on Saturday, that, contrary to the information previously released, none of the 536 Mozambicans repatriated across the Ressano Garcia border on 10 May had been tested for the new coronavirus.

“It is worth clarifying that, although there was this prior information, in fact the people were subjected to a screening in South Africa that did not include a test. In terms of laboratory testing, this was performed in the national territory,” the official explained.

Samples of all the returnees were collected at the Manguaza Transit Centre in Boane district, Maputo province, but the citizens dispersed to their areas of residence, over several provinces in the south and centre of Mozambique, before the results became available.

The ten diagnosed on Saturday (16) also includes a 28 year old male in the headquarters of Palma district, Cabo Delgado province, whose source of infection remains unknown.

By Adérito Caldeira

Source: A Verdade