On the death of Mozambican journalist João Chamusse - Carta de Moçambique
Photo: A Verdade
The cumulative total of positive Covid-19 cases in Mozambique rose to 162 on Thursday (May 21), 138 of which are of local transmission, and more than fifty transmission chains await identification. Also on Thursday, the 81st Total oil company worker was diagnosed with the new coronavirus, after having left the facilities on the Afungi Peninsula (Cabo Delgado) with a negative test.
Six new individuals have been diagnosed with Covid-19 here, all Mozambicans; four have no symptoms and two have mild symptoms, the National Director of Public Health announced.
One of new positive cases reported yesterday was identified in Changara district, Tete province; a female aged 15 – 24 years old, who had been in contact with the first case diagnosed in Tete province on May 17th – a 25-year-old woman with no history of travelling either abroad or outside the province, and who had had no contact with anyone from Cabo Delgado.
In Cabo Delgado, the Covid-19 epicentre in Mozambique, three new positive cases were diagnosed yesterday, all in the capital of Palma district, and all in the 25 to 44-year-old age group.
Also on Thursday (21), two new patients were reported in Maputo city: a man aged 25-34 years old who was tested during active surveillance at a health unit, and a woman aged 35-44 years old who returned a few days ago from the Total oil facilities on the Afungi peninsula.
@Verdade has learned that the woman completed her quarantine in Cabo Delgado province, where she tested negative for Covid-19, and then travelled via Pemba to Maputo on Mozambique Airlines, and was at the end of her 14-day quarantine when she tested positive.
Six cases in Gaza Province
“In Afungi, the exit plan was based on the risk classification of groups of professionals, meaning that the last ones to leave were probably more exposed to a high transmission conglomerate. This is a positive case among the last [workers] to leave. When the specific exposure of this individual occurred is difficult to specify, but she had a negative test order to be allowed to leave, and with this not having been annulled that she was exposed to the transmission. A test performed immediately after exposure may come back negative due to the incubation period and the existence of the virus in the secretions may not have passed through the sample sufficiently for the test to turn out positive.” Mozambique’s National Director for Inquiry and Health Monitoring explained.
Despite LAM having transported suspected potential asymptomatic cases such as the woman diagnosed in Maputo yesterday and another Total worker who also tested positive on May 20, Mozambique Airlines continues to operate without testing its crews.
Meanwhile, health officials have detailed that, by Thursday, there were six patients in Gaza province, two in Xai-Xai city, one in Chongoene district, one in Limpopo district, another in Chókwè municipality and another in Mandlakazi municipality.
By Adérito Caldeira
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