Two more Covid-19 deaths and record number of cases

Maputo, 16 Sep (AIM) – The Mozambican health authorities on 15 September announced two more deaths from the Covid-19 respiratory disease and a new record for the number of cases diagnosed in a single 24 hour period.

According to a Health Ministry press release, one of the latest victims was a 56-year-old Mozambican man who died in Maputo on Friday. It is not clear why it took the Ministry five days to announce his death. The second case was that of a 43-year-old Mozambican man who died in Beira on Monday. This brings to 37 the total number of deaths from Covid-19 in Mozambique.

The Ministry release said that, to date, 117,029 people have been tested for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, 1,441 of them in the previous 24 hours. 693 of the samples were tested in private facilities, and 748 in private laboratories.

Of all the samples, 598 were from Maputo city, 347 from Cabo Delgado, 136 from Tete, 122 from Niassa, 91 from Inhambane, 76 from Maputo province, 40 from Zambezia, 16 from Gaza and 15 from Nampula.

1,210 of the samples proved negative, but 231 people tested positive for the coronavirus. This beats the earlier record set on Sunday when 229 people were reported as positive in a single day. In three days 673 people have been diagnosed with the disease. The total number of positive cases diagnosed since the start of the pandemic now stands at 5,713.

Of the new cases, 221 are Mozambicans, nine are Chinese and one is an Indian citizen. 117 are men or boys and 114 are women or girls. 12 are children under five years of age, and 10 are over 65 years old. 77 of the new cases are from Maputo city, and 68 are from Maputo province. There are 44 cases from Tete, 24 from Zambezia, 17 from Niassa and one from Cabo Delgado. There was no mention in the Ministry release of the districts from which the positive cases come.

In line with standard health ministry procedure, all the new cases are in home isolation, and their contacts are being traced.

In the same 24 hour period, five Covid-19 patients were admitted to hospital, four in Maputo city and one in Gaza. 31 people are now under medical care in Covid-19 isolation wards – 27 in Maputo city, two in Gaza, one in Nampula and one in Tete.

The Ministry release also announced that 157 more people have made a full recovery from Covid-19, 66 of them in Maputo city, 43 in Cabo Delgado, ten in Niassa, five in Tete, two in Zambezia and one in Inhambane. At least one province has been omitted from these figures, which only add up to 127. The Ministry put the total number of recoveries to date at 3,181 (55.7 per cent of all positive cases).

As of Tuesday, the geographical breakdown of all 5,713 positive cases, by the provinces where they were diagnosed, was as follows: Maputo city, 2,327; Maputo province, 1,020; Cabo Delgado, 658; Nampula, 561; Zambezia, 247; Sofala, 197; Gaza, 186; Niassa, 167; Tete, 150; Inhambane, 102; Manica, 98.

The key Covid-19 statistics for Mozambique are now: 5,713 confirmed cases, of which 3,181 have made a complete recovery, and 2,491 are active cases. 41 Covid-19 patients have died, 37 from the disease and four from other causes.
(AIM)