Mozambique: Two more confirmed cases of mpox, 23 suspected cases
Window of opportunity to prevent community transmission of Covid-19 in Mozambique closes with the death of a boy in the city of Nampula – A Verdade
1:42 CAT | 26 May 2020
Photo: Miramar
The window of opportunity to prevent community transmission of the new coronavirus in Mozambique has closed, @Verdade reports. This Monday (25), the National Director of Health announced: “We recorded the first death due to Covid-19 in our country, a 13-year-old child, whose sample was collected on May 20, 2020, in the city of Nampula”.
It was also revealed that two health professionals in Cabo Delgado province are infected with the new coronavirus, on a day when 15 more positive cases were reported, nine of them children.
Between Sunday (24) and Monday (25), the Ministry of Health tested 331 more suspected cases of the pandemic ravaging our planet. Fifteen came back positive - “all of Mozambican nationality. Five are asymptomatic and the remaining ten present mild to moderate symptoms”.
A girl in the 5-14 year old age group was diagnosed in the headquarters of Palma district, Cabo Delgado province. According to the Ministry of Health, she had been in contact with a previously existing positive case.
Still in provincial epicentre of Covid-19 in Mozambique, two boys whose sources of infection have not been determined were diagnosed in the city of Pemba, one in the 5-14 year old age group and another in the 15-24 year old age group. There is also a girl in the 5-14 years old age group, a contact of a positive case previously existing in the provincial capital.
In Changara district, Tete province, a girl aged 15-24 years was diagnosed, whose source of infection has not been determined.
In Beira city, Sofala province, two new patients were identified: a girl aged 15-24 years old and a boy aged 5-14 years old, both infected by unknown sources.
In Mandlakaze district, Gaza province, an elderly woman over 60 years old and a boy aged 15-24 years old tested positive, both contacts of a citizen infected with the new coronavirus and recently returned from South Africa.
In the city of Matola, Maputo province, another child, a boy under the age of 5, was diagnosed. His source of infection has not yet been determined.
In the city of Maputo, two new patients were identified: a boy under 5 years old and a boy aged 15-24 years. Health authorities have not yet been able to determine the source of their infections.
Community transmission is happening and a Covid-19 explosion is imminent in Mozambique
In the city of Nampula, three more cases tested positive: one girl under 5 years old and two boys aged 5-14 years old. One of the diagnosed boys ended up losing his life. ”We recorded the first death due to Covid-19 in our country, that of a 13-year-old child, whose sample was taken in the city of Nampula on May 20, 2020,” Dr Rosa Marlene announced.
The National Director of Health clarified that the boy “was being monitored by health services in Nampula for concomitant illnesses. His last hospitalisation was about three months ago. he presented on May 20 this year for control and, during the visit, health professionals detected the presence of fever and a cough, and, for that reason, a sample was collected for a Covid-19 test”.
@Verdade has learned that one of the deceased’s “concomitant illnesses” was chronic malnutrition, which compelled him to visit the health centre in the city of Nampula regularly. This is where the sample was collected [on May 20], arriving at the National Health Institute only late on Friday (22).
Although the epidemiological investigation into the first death in Mozambique only started yesterday, health authorities have no doubt that the infection was contracted in one of the populous Nampula suburbs, where the boy lived with his family.
Of the first cases diagnosed on Sunday (24) in the capital of Nampula, Mozambique’s most populous province, two are children and the third is a young woman aged 25-34 years old, all independent transmission chains.
The existence of two health professionals previously infected by the new coronavirus in Cabo Delgado province was revealed yesterday, the day the number of cumulative cases reached 209, of which 183 were locally transmitted and 26 imported cases.
By Adérito Caldeira
Source: A Verdade / Miramar / IINS
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