Watch: New Covid-19 focus in Palma, 2 more children infected; MISAU admits that community transmission may be “already occurring” – Mozambique | A Verdade

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Watch: New Covid-19 focus in Palma, 2 more children infected; MISAU admits that community transmission may be “already occurring” – Mozambique | A Verdade

11:33 CAT | 15 May 2020

A new coronavirus focus has emerged in Mozambique with the positive diagnosis of four Mozambicans in the District of Palma, announced on Thursday (May 14). Another four other individuals had also tested positive, it was announced yesterday, including two children. The new infections bring to 115 the cumulative total of Covid-19 cases in the country.

The Ministry of Health still does not know how the 18 individuals diagnosed since last week were infected, and admits that community transmission of Covid-19 may be “already occurring” in Mozambique.

“To date, May 14, 2020, 5,119 suspected cases have been tested in Mozambique, 373 in the last 24 hours. Of the new cases tested by the National Health Institute laboratory, 365 came back negative and eight positive for Covid-19,” National Director of Public Health Dr Rosa Marlene announced.

The tested samples, she indicated, come from active surveillance in health units as well as ongoing epidemiological investigations: 22 samples were collected in Cabo Delgado province, one in Nampula, 11 in Tete, three in Manica, 14 in Inhambane, two in Gaza, 146 in Maputo province and 174 in Maputo city.

Dr Marlene told a press conference that the eight newly diagnosed are all Mozambicans, four of them with mild to moderate symptoms and four without symptoms.

“Two of the infected are in isolation at home in Kamaxakeni, Maputo city, one male, 18 months of age, and another male, 32 years of age. These are two new chains of transmission whose source has not been identified,” Dr Marlene said..

Dr Sergio Chicumbe, National Director for the Health Survey and Monitoring Area, clarified that “the 18-month-old child is not the son of any existing case, and was detected in the context of active surveillance at Maputo Central Hospital. At this point the [child’s] home context is already fully investigated ( …) the line of social interactions that may have led to this child’s infection is not yet clear. It is clear that the grandmother of this child has had some symptoms of cold or flu”.

One new case was diagnosed in Inhambane province: a five-year-old girl living in Inhambane city, who had been in contact with the positive case reported in Inhambane on the 11th of May.

75th Total worker in Mozambique diagnosed with Covid-19

Coronavirus1405-mapa — *Image: A Verdade / Graphics by Nuno Teixeira*

Health officials also revealed the emergence of a new outbreak of the pandemic at the headquarters village of the District of Palma, Cabo Delgado province, where four individuals tested positive for Covid-19 – three men, all 29 years old, and one 28-year-old woman.

Dr. Sérgio Chicumbe said that it was not possible to “establish a direct relationship with the Afungi camp – that would be speculation,” but admitted that “it is not known concretely what the transmission mechanism was. Meanwhile, we are clear as to what the possible transmission mechanisms are: community transmission – which is a hypothesis considered by the Ministry of Health, [the possibility] that it is already occurring – or exposure to an imported positive case”.

The possibility that community transmission is happening in Mozambique seems to be corroborated with the emergence of 18 new cases whose source of infection the authorities cannot identify, although it is clear that they have no history of travel abroad or contact with workers of the oil company leading the Mozambique LNG project.

Community transmission is the most serious phase of a pandemic, and is characterised by the inability to relate confirmed cases through chains of transmission in a large number of instances, or an increase in positive tests from samples collected in sentinel posts.

Meanwhile, in Total’s construction camps on the Afungi Peninsula in Palma district, the 75th worker of the French major operating in Mozambique has tested positive for Covid-19. The patient is a 30-year-old female who, according to Dr. Chicumbe, has a “low viral load”, indicating that her infection has been ongoing for several weeks and is in its final phases.

By Adérito Caldeira