Mozambique: Authorities concerned at malfunctioning of public morgues - AIM report
Maputo: [File photo: Lusa]
Eneas Comiche, the mayor of Maputo, went into home quarantine on March 19, according to official communications from the municipality of the capital. He had returned from London on Friday, March 13, in the company of Territorial Planning Councillor José Nicols and Eduardo Zaqueu, of the Office of International Relations of Maputo City.
The three participated in an event where Prince Albert II of Monaco was also present. As was announced [on Thursday 19], the Monegasque prince tested positive for Covid-19. On March 13, global alert about the new coronavirus was already high, and quarantine for those in highly infected countries was mandatory almost worldwide.
The day after his return, Comiche was seen in the company of family members at a private ceremony in the Lhanguene cemetery. Later that Saturday, he joined a meeting attended by several members of Frelimo, including governors and secretaries of state in the provinces.
On March 16, Eneas Comiche spent hours in his office in the Paços do Conselho, and on the following day (17) he held a meeting of the Municipal Council, with its dozens of members. On the 18th, he participated in a Frelimo Political Commission meeting chaired by President Fiipe Nyusi.
Only the next day, March 19, did he feel unwell and enter home quarantine. That is, after returning from London, Comiche had “close contact” with several people, including his grandchildren, who have reportedly been tested yesterday by a medical team from ICOR (Instituto do Coração), according to ‘Carta’ sources.
Our newspaper has found that some senior Frelimo members who interacted with Comiche are being tested. Among the hosts of the party there was some “panic” at the possibility (if the mayor turns out to be infected) at the prospect of prominent party figures being infected.
Eneas Comiche has already been tested, but the results have not yet been released. It is not known whether they are positive or negative. This will be known in the coming days, and it is expected that they will be made public, given the alarm created among the public by this health condition.
The municipality continues to argue that Comiche followed all the procedures he should have followed. “The border health protocol was complied with, at a time when the United Kingdom was not yet part of the countries that deserved special attention,” it has said, also noting that Comiche was quarantined on the 19th, the day when Her Majesty’s land entered the list of “high risk” countries.
The Dean of Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), Orlando Quilambo, is also being closely scrutinised. He returned from Lisbon on Sunday, March 15, but continued to carry out his professional duties normally. Colleagues at UEM are troubled, believing that Quilambo should have gone into home quarantine. Some public figures who were with Quilambo in Portugal (where he received an Honoris Causa doctorate at the University of Beira Interior) did decide to submit themselves to self-isolation – among them poet and university professor Filimone Meigos.
Yesterday, we tried to reach Dean Quilambo, but in vain. A UEM source however said that the justification for Quilambo not being quarantined is that, when he returned from Lisbon on December 15, Portugal had not yet been declared a “high risk country”.
The first internal containment measures, requiring anyone arriving from a foreign country with more than 1,000 Covid-19 cases to undergo mandatory quarantine, were announced on March 12. This was not yet the case with Portugal. But, even so, there are those who think that the dean should have submitted to self-isolation, given his enormous responsibilities in a post at the presidential discretion.
By Marcelo Mosse
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.