Maputo — The Mozambican health authorities reported on Sunday a further 56 cases of the Covid-19 respiratory disease, but also announced that another 64 patients have made a full recovery from the disease.
A Sunday press release from the Ministry of Health said that, since the start of the pandemic, 46,556 people have been tested for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, 1,367 of them in the previous 24 hours. 803 of these tests were undertaken in public facilities and 564 in private laboratories.
Of the samples tested, 493 were from Maputo city, 380 from Cabo Delgado, 145 from Maputo province, 137 from Nampula, 103 from Zambezia, 60 from Sofala, 33 from Manica, nine from Inhambane, seven from Tete and one from Gaza.
1,311 of these tests were negative, and 56 people tested positive for the coronavirus (52 in the public facilities, and four in the private laboratories), bringing the total number of cases diagnosed in Mozambique since the first case, on 22 March, to 1,491.
All the new cases are Mozambican citizens. 26 are men or boys, and 30 are women or girls. Eight are children under 15 years of age. Nine are youths and adolescents aged between 15 and 24, 34 are adults aged between 25 and 64, and five are over 65 years old.
38 of the new cases were from Maputo province (17 in Matola city, eight in Moamba district, on the border with South Africa, seven from Manhica and six from Boane). Exactly half of these cases were detected through tracing the contacts of earlier Covid-19 cases, while the other 19 cases were found through epidemiological surveillance at the health units – essentially testing people with respiratory problems.
Eight of the new cases were from Maputo city, two were from Nampula city, and two were from Montepuez district in Cabo Delgado. There were also two cases from Zambezia (one from Luabo district, and one from Maganja da Costa), two cases from Changara district in Tete, and two from Mossurize district in Manica.
In line with standard Health Ministry procedure, all 56 cases have been placed in home isolation, and their contacts are now being traced.
Seven Covid-19 patients remain hospitalised in isolation wards, four in Maputo city, two in Nampula and one in Cabo Delgado.
The Ministry also reported that in the previous 24 hours, 64 patients recovered completely from Covid-19. 58 of them are from Nampula, three from Inhambane, two from Maputo province and one from Zambezia. The total number of recoveries now stands at 472 – which is 31.7 per cent of all positive cases diagnosed in Mozambique.
As of Sunday, the geographical breakdown of the positive cases, by the province in which they were diagnosed was as follows: Cabo Delgado, 389; Nampula, 364; Maputo province, 274; Maputo City, 248; Tete, 47; Inhambane, 42; Zambezia, 36; Sofala, 31; Gaza, 30; Niassa, 20; Manica.10.
983 (65 per cent) of the cases are male, and 528 (35 per cent are female). 1,410 cases (95 per cent) are Mozambicans and only 81 cases (five per cent) are foreigners.
There are a sizeable number of children among the positive cases – 151 (10.1 per cent) are under the age of 15. Unlike the epidemics in Europe or the United States only a small percentage of the cases are elderly – 57 (3.8 per cent) are aged over 65. The age groups most affected are adults of working age.
The basic Covid-19 statistics for Mozambique are now: 1,491 confirmed cases, of whom 472 have made a full recovery and 1,007 are active cases. 12 Covid-19 patients have died, ten from the disease itself, and two from other, unrelated causes.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique