Mozambique in grip of third wave of Covid-19

Maputo, 6 Jul (AIM) – There can no longer be any doubt – Mozambique is indeed in the grip of a third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, declared the Director of Surveys of the National Health Institute (INS), Sergio Chicumbe, on 5 July.

Speaking at a Maputo press conference Chicumbe lamented, “we are already in the third wave. The situation is not good, and we must comply with preventive measures. We should be in isolation and avoid greater propagation of the virus. There should be general awareness that everything depends on us, for there is no doubt that we are in the third wave. We don’t need to make a formal announcement”.

Asked when the third wave would reach its peak, Chicumbe said it would not be prudent to make any forecasts. He noted that Mozambique is now facing the Delta variant of the coronavirus, which is much more transmissible than the original virus. Nonetheless, looking at the precedent of the first two waves, Chicumbe warned that the current high levels of cases and deaths could continue for another two or three months, unless drastic measures are taken.

The National Director of Public Health Rosa Marlene, told the reporters that on 5 July a further 737 cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed. Thus, in the first five days of July, 4,484 new cases of the disease were identified. She added that in the same 24 hour period, eight people died of Covid-19 – five men and three women, all Mozambican citizens, and aged between 24 and 81. Five died in Maputo, one in Tete, one in Sofala and one in Gaza. This brings the total Covid-19 death toll in Mozambique to 912.

Since the start of the pandemic, 613,962 people have been tested for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, with the total number of Covid-19 cases diagnosed in Mozambique to 80,888.

Asked if the country is in any danger of running out of beds for Covid-19 patients, Marlene said that currently 1,136 beds are available. But they are unevenly distributed – 346 are in Maputo, 184 in Nampula, 162 in Cabo Delgado, 161 in Zambezia, and 104 in Tete, with smaller numbers in the other provinces. Currently, there is just one Covid-19 patient in Nampula, one in Zambezia, and none at all in Cabo Delgado. 185 (76.4 per cent) of the patients are in Maputo, 24 in Tete, 20 in Sofala, three each in Niassa, Matola and Inhambane, and two in Manica.

Marlene also reported one item of good news – on 5 July, 533 people were declared fully recovered from Covid-19 (427 in Tete, 55 in Inhambane, 28 in Maputo province, and 15 in Zambezia, and eight in Cabo Delgado). This brings the total number of recoveries to 72,167, which is 89.2 per cent of all those ever diagnosed with Covid-19 in Mozambique. However, the number of new cases has continued to outstrip the number of recoveries, and so the number of active cases continues to grow.
(AIM)