Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican government has guaranteed that it is taking measures to mitigate the impacts of a potential fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Health Minister Armindo Tiago, the health authorities are improving their level of preparation through coordination with all relevant stakeholders in the Mozambican health sector.
The measures under way, he said, include stepping up the national vaccination campaign against Covid-19, by distributing a sufficient stock of vaccines throughout the country, strengthening epidemiological surveillance, including testing all travellers at all entry points to the country, and making communities aware of the need to take preventive measures against the disease.
Tiago was speaking in Maputo on Wednesday at the bi-annual meeting of the health sector with its strategic partners, which reviews various aspects of international cooperation in health.
“We have drawn up in advance a Plan to Respond to the Fourth Wave of Covid-19, and we have distributed this document to all our partners, from whom we have received valuable contributions”, said Tiago
The current forecast, he added, is that a fourth wave could hit Mozambique in late December, or in January.
By planning well in advance, said the Minister, the government is hoping to reduce the impact of an eventual fourth wave. He took advantage of the presence of all the main donors to the health sector, to urge them to support the response plan, though he did not estimate how much it would cost.
As for vaccination, Tiago said the priority group consists of about 16.8 million people – which is essentially the entire adult population. So far around 26 per cent of the target group has been fully vaccinated (4,297,826 people, according to the latest Health Ministry statistics).
The representative of the contact group of the partners, Emren Ozaltin, the World Bank programme director in Mozambique, recognised the government’s health development efforts, as well as its attempts to mitigate Covid-19.
The partners promised that they will continue to support Mozambique in situations of health emergency, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, and the plight of people displaced by terrorism in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
The partners recommended that the government invest more in human capital, to bring it into line with other countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
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