Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican Health Ministry on Saturday urged all citizens to redouble measures of prevention against the new variant of the coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease.
It is feared that the new variant, baptised with the Greek letter omicron, is highly contagious, and may pose a more severe threat than earlier variants.
Panic-stricken governments in Europe and the United States have lashed out against southern African countries, banning flights from most of them, including Mozambique, even though nobody knows where the omicron variant began.
A Saturday statement from the Health Ministry said that no case of the omicron variant has yet been detected in Mozambique. Indeed, the number of cases of all variants of Covid-19 has continued to decline.
The Ministry of Health figures from Friday show that, out of the 1,418 people tested that day, only three were positive for the coronavirus – one in Gaza province, one in Niassa and one in Cabo Delgado.
The positivity rate (the percentage of those tested found to be carrying the virus) on Friday was just 0.21 per cent – which compares with 0.62 per cent on Thursday, 0.55 per cent on Wednesday, 0.2 per cent on Tuesday, and 0.88 per cent on Monday.
The number of people under medical care in the Covid-19 treatment facilities has fallen to just two – one in Maputo and one in Matola.
There were no deaths from Covid-19 on Friday, and so the total death toll from the disease in Mozambique remains 1.940.
Despite this encouraging picture, the Health Ministry warned that there is no room for complacency.
The statement declared that the Ministry “recommends to all citizens and all living forces in society to redouble preventive measures against Covid-19 – particularly the frequent washing of hands with soap and water, or disinfecting them with alcohol, observing physical distancing, wearing masks correctly to cover the mouth and nose, and observing all instructions for quarantine or isolation”.
The Ministry also urged all eligible citizens to make their way to the nearest vaccination post to ensure that they are vaccinated against Covid-19.
Speaking on Radio Mozambique, Health Minister Armindo Tiago said he is confident that, by the end of this year 50 per cent of the population will have been vaccinated. The target figure is 17 million, and to date about seven million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
In the wake of the discovery of the omicron variant, the Health Ministry is stepping up screening of travellers at the country’s busiest frontier post, that of Ressano Garcia, on the border with South Africa.
Speaking on Saturday to the independent television station STV, the chief doctor for Maputo province, Celestina da Conceição, said that Mozambicans returning to the country will be submitted to rapid tests, or to the more thorough PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests. Foreigners wishing to enter the country must show proof that they have been vaccinated
“In the last three days the number of cases has increased”, said Conceição. “Yesterday (Friday) South Africa diagnosed 3,000 cases. So we have strengthened our technical health team, to step up vigilance over migratory movements, because we found that the majority of Mozambicans were entering the country without proof of testing”.
For citizens who take PCR tests at the border “we have the capacity to follow up those who tested positive, regardless of what provinces they come from”, said Conceição. “We have a data base that we send to all delegations in the country to follow up these cases”.
She added that Maputo province has the capacity to carry out its own tests, without depending on the National Health Institute (INS). “We now have a molecular biology laboratory with the capacity for carrying out 2,000 tests a day”, she said.
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