Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique’s deputy minister of health, Lídia Cardoso, said on Monday that the latest batches of vaccines against Covid-19 donated to the country had arrived at “an opportune time” because it is experiencing a third wave of infections.
“This donation comes to our country at an opportune moment, at a time when the country is being ravaged by a third wave of Covid-19,” she said at Maputo airport, during the reception of 50,000 doses of the Vaxzevria vaccine produced by AstraZeneca, donated to Mozambique by Portugal.
The same day was to see another 108,000 donated by the COVAX international initiative, with support from France.
“Since mid-June, the number of new infections has shown a sharp increase”, the minister stressed.
New cases so far in July totalled 26 on Sunday, already surpassing the 22 recorded in May – the month with the lowest number of cases and deaths from Covid-19 since February’s peak of more than 20,000 infections and 274 deaths.
Vaccines “must be combined with the other prevention measures” in order to have their full effect, the minister stressed.
Portugal’s secretary of state for foreign affairs and cooperation, Francisco André, speaking at the ceremony to receive the shipment, noted that Mozambique was the largest recipient of aid from the country and that the batch being delivered was just the first.
“We are working so that a second similar batch may follow in the short term,” he said, adding that he hoped an “identical shipment” would be on offer for “other partner countries” in July and “during the summer” in a pandemic that he stressed should be managed together.
“We have a relationship of solidarity and a special relationship between our countries,” he said of Portugal and Mozambique, stressing that the relationship should be “deepened in the most diverse areas” and that the two countries “have to be present at times that are difficult for each other.”
Mozambique has had a cumulative 904 deaths associated with Covid-19 and 80,151 confirmed coronavirus cases, 89% of which are now deemed to have recovered.
Worldwide, the pandemic has claimed at least 3,974,841 lives worldwide, resulting from more than 183.4 million cases of infection by the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, according to the latest report by Agence France Presse.
The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was detected at the end of 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China; there are currently several known variants, identified first in countries that include the UK, India and South Africa.
