AfricaPress-mozambique: Mozambican Health Minister Armindo Tiago announced on Monday that one case of the Delta variant of the coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease has been identified in the western province of Tete.
Speaking at the opening in Maputo of a National Meeting of Reflection on the Health Information System in Mozambique, the Minister gave few further details, but it is assumed that this case was among the 400 samples sent for analysis at the reference laboratory in South Africa.
“The situation in Tete province is of great concern”, said Tiago. “And it is in this province that we have detected the first case of the Delta variant. Tete is advancing rapidly to a situation of serious, community level transmission”.
It was in Tete, that the highest positivity rates (the percentage of those tested found to be infected with the coronavirus) were recorded over the weekend – 27.3 per cent on Sunday, and 37.2 per cent on Saturday. Tete seemed well on the way to overtaking Maputo as the main hot spot for coronavirus infection in Mozambique.
The number of new cases of Covid-19 has increased sharply over the past week, particularly in Maputo and Tete. Tiago stressed that the only way to deal with this is through strict observance of the preventive measures recommended by the government – notably the obligatory use of face masks in public places, regular washing or disinfecting of hands, and social distancing.
The Delta coronavirus strain used to be called the Indian variant, because it was first identified in India. The World Health Organisation (WHO) now recommends that new strains of the virus should no longer be named after the countries where they first appeared. Instead letters of the Greek alphabet are used to identify them.
The Delta variant is much more transmissible (and hence more virulent and potentially lethal) than the original strain of the virus, or subsequent variants. WHO believes that it is well on the way to becoming the dominant coronavirus strain throughout the world.
At a press conference later in the day, the director of surveys in the National Health Institute (INS), Sergio Chicumbe, said the contacts of the man infected with the Delta variant in Tete have been traced, and several of them have also tested positive for the coronavirus. However, he could not confirm whether they too all had the Delta strain, since Mozambique does not possess the equipment for analyzing virus genomes.
“We should understand that in Mozambique we have transport corridors linking us with other African countries, which have already detected the Delta strain”, he added. “There is thus a real risk that in the near future, this strain will be disseminated throughout the country”.
He warned that, if the current level of coronavirus transmission continues, “we shall shortly enter into a third wave of infection”.
