Mapito — The Mozambican health authorities have diagnosed a further 19 cases of the Covid-19 respiratory disease, bringing the total number of cases detected in the country since the start of the pandemic to 472.
Speaking in Maputo on Wednesday, at the Health Ministry’s daily press conference on Covid-19, the National Director of Public Health, Rosa Marlene, said that 15,544 people have been tested in Mozambique, 354 of them in the previous 24 hours.
Of the samples tested, 104 were from Maputo City, 77 from Maputo province, 65 from Nampula, 55 from Tete, 26 from Inhambane, 12 from Sofala, 10 from Gaza, three from Zambezia and two from Niassa.
335 of the samples tested were negative, and 19 were positive for Covid-19. Marlene said that all 19 are Mozambican citizens. 12 (63 per cent) are men, and seven are women. Nine cases (five men and four women) are from Nampula, eight are from Maputo province (six men and two women), and two are from Maputo city (one man and one woman).
In line with the standard Health Ministry procedures, all the new cases have been placed under home isolation, and health staff are tracing their contacts.
Marlene said that six Covid-19 patients, all of them in Nampula, remain hospitalised, but all show “good clinical development”.
A further two patients, a Mozambican and an Italian, have made a full recovery from the disease. This brings the number of recoveries to 138.
The 472 confirmed cases break down by province as follows: Cabo Delgado, 164; Nampula, 144; Maputo City, 73; Maputo province, 56; Sofala, 13; Niassa, five; Tete five; Inhambane, four; Manica, three; Gaza, three; Zambezia, two.
310 (66 per cent) of the cases are men, and 162 (34 per cent) are women. 420 (89 per cent) are Mozambicans, and 52 (11 per cent) are foreigners.
As for age groups, 81 of the positive cases are aged between 30 and 34, and 79 are between 25 and 29 years old. 53 are aged between 20 and 24, and 38 between 40 and 44. So 53 per cent of those who tested positive are in the most productive age groups.
An alarmingly high number are children and adolescents – 20 are under four years of age, 16 are aged between five and nine, 17 between 10 and 14, and 18 betwen 15 and 19. Between them the children and asolescents account for 15 per cent of the positive cases.
Unlike the picture in Europe or in the United States, very few of the positive cases are elderly. 16 are aged between 60 and 64, and only 12 are aged 65 or above.
As of Wednesday Mozambique’s key Covid-19 data were: 472 confirmed cases, of which 138 have made a full recovery and 331 are considered active cases. Three Covid-19 patients have died, two from the disease and the third from an unrelated cause.
Source: Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique