NEW RECORD

The Mozambican health authorities on Monday announced a record number of cases of the Covid-19 respiratory disease – 895 cases in a 24 hour period. The previous record was 879 cases, reported on 9 January. Over the past ten days the average number of Covid-19 cases diagnosed per day has been 665. Addressing a Maputo press conference, the National Director of Medical Care in the Health Ministry, Ussene Isse, said a further eight Covid-19 deaths were reported on Monday – seven in Maputo city and one in Maputo province. Five of the victims were women and three were men. Two were over 65 years old, two were aged between 55 and 64, three between 45 and 54, and one was in the 25 to 34 year age bracket. The fact that the deaths were reported on Monday does not mean that they all occurred on Monday. Isse said the deaths occurred “between 13 January and 18 January”. This brings the total Covid-19 death toll in Mozambique to 249. Since the start of the pandemic, said Isse, 306,344 people have been tested for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, 1,833 of them in the previous 24 hours. Of the samples tested, 657 were from Maputo city, 342 from Maputo province, 265 from Inhambane, 194 from Zambezia, 167 from Sofala, 155 from Niassa, 22 from Manica, 19 from Gaza, and 12 from Tete. No tests were reported from Nampula or Cabo Delgado provinces. 938 of the tests gave negative results, and 895 people tested positive for the coronavirus. This means that 48.8 per cent of all those tested were positive for the virus – a new and alarming record for Mozambique.

Of the cases reported on Monday, 871 are confirmed as Mozambican citizens, and the nationality of the other 24 cases has yet to be ascertained. 476 of the new cases are women or girls and 419 are men or boys. 128 are children under the age of 15, and 33 are over the age of 65. But the great majority - 561 – are young adults aged between 55 and 44. A majority of the cases come from the far south – 315 from Maputo city and 182 from Maputo province. Thus Maputo city and province accounted for 55.3 per cent of the cases. But there were also 126 cases from Zambezia, 119 from Inhambane, 81 from Niassa, 52 from Sofala, 11 from Gaza, eight from Manica and one from Tete. Isse said that, in the same 24 hour period, 23 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospital (17 in Maputo city, three in Tete, one in Nampula, one in Sofala and one in Inhambane). But a further 43 patients were admitted to hospital (24 in Maputo city, five in Maputo province, six in Nampula, six in Tete, one in Zambezia and one in Sofala). The number of people under medical care in the Covid-19 isolation wards had now risen to 219 – the highest it has ever been. The great majority of these cases – 173 – are in Maputo. There are also ten in Nampula, ten in Tete, seven in Zambezia, six in Matola, five in Manica, four in Sofala, two in Inhambane, one in Gaza and one in Cabo Delgado. Niassa remains the only province where no Covid-19 patients are hospitalised.

Isse said that 149 of these patients are men and 71 are women. 81 are aged 60 or above. He classified the clinical condition of 107 of the patients as “moderate”, but 96 were seriously ill and 16 were in a critical state. 113 of the patients are receiving oxygen, and 16 are on ventilators. He added that 68 per cent of Covid-19 patients reach hospital with serious respiratory problems and require at least ten days of treatment.This increase in hospitalisation is putting a heavy strain on the capacity of the health system in Maputo. The private clinics that treat Covid-19 patients have already run out of beds, and so has Maputo Central Hospital. There were 40 beds for Covid-19 patients in the Central Hospital, and extra capacity is now being added by installing tents. The main isolation ward is in the Polana-Canico health centre. This has space for 120 Covid-19 patients, and currently only 33 of those beds remain vacant. To alleviate the pressure on Polana-Canico, 150 beds for Covid-19 patients are being provided in the Mavalane General Hospital, all of them with oxygen supplies.“The public sector is now opening its doors to receive patients from the private sector”. Isse added. “Mozambicans have a right to care”. He stressed that the Health Ministry is doing its utmost to avoid “catastrophe medicine”, in which doctors must decide which patients will live and which will die. There is no immediate shortage of ventilators. Isse said Mozambique has 100 ventilators, of which only 16 are currently in use.

 

On Monday, a further 273 people were reported as fully recovered from Covid-19 (92 in Gaza, 90 in Maputo province, 55 in Maputo city, 24 in Niassa and 12 in Zambezia). The total number of recoveries now stands at 18,880. This is 68.8 per cent of all those diagnosed with the coronavirus in Mozambique since the start of the pandemic. This is a sharp decline from the figure before the New Year, when almost 90 per cent of those diagnosed with the coronavirus had recovered. Because the daily number of new cases greatly surpasses the number of recoveries, the number of active cases has also been growing sharply. There are now 8,313 active cases – the highest figure the Health Ministry has ever recorded. Their geographical distribution is as follows: Maputo city, 3,875 (46.6 per cent of all cases); Maputo province, 1,401; Manica, 506; Sofala, 483; Inhambane, 461; Zambezia, 403; Gaza, 302; Niassa, 276; Cabo Delgado, 248; Nampula, 228; Tete, 130. While greater Maputo still remains the epicentre of the pandemic in Mozambique, all other provinces are showing a significant number of active cases.

Isse warned that Covid-19 patients who are discharged from hospital must continue to implement preventive measures, since there is always the risk of re-infection.Covid-19 “is a treacherous disease”, he said because while some patients are seriously ill when admitted to hospital, they may improve rapidly. But the opposite also happened, with patients who were hospitalised with only slight symptoms, suddenly deteriorating into a critical condition. Isse lamented the fact that so many Mozambicans seem to have abandoned such preventive measures as social distancing and wearing masks in public. He stressed that, in the absence of vaccination (which is not expected to begin until June or July), preventive measures are the only protection that Mozambicans have.He warned that, unless people change their behavior, the burden of disease and death could become much greater.