Maputo — The number of people in Mozambique fully vaccinated against the Covid-19 respiratory disease is now more than 14 million.
According to a Wednesday press release from the Ministry of Health, in the previous 24 hours 19,268 people were vaccinated. This brought the total number fully vaccinated to 14,014,324, which is 92.1 per cent of all people ever diagnosed with Covid-19 in Mozambique.
14,909,652 people have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, and 347,155 have received booster shots.
There are substantial differences between the provinces. The best vaccination rates are in Nampula and Tete, both of which have vaccinated more than their target figures - Nampula has vaccinated 105.1 per cent of its target, and Tete vaccinated 100.8 per cent.
The simplest explanation for this is that the National Statistics Institute (INE) may have underestimated the size of the population in the two provinces. But demographic changes may also have played a role - notably the massive flow of people displaced by terrorist raids from Cabo Delgado into Nampula.
All the provinces have achieved vaccination rates of over 80 per cent, with the remarkable exception of Maputo city. Although this is where almost the entire population is within easy walking distance of a vaccination post, only 70.8 per cent of the target group has been vaccinated.
The Ministry release also reported that on Wednesday a further 11 cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed. Eight of the new cases were men and three were women. Seven were Mozambican citizens and four were foreigners (the release did not reveal their nationalities). Six were diagnosed in Maputo city, two in Maputo province, and one each in Cabo Delgado, Sofala and Gaza.
Since the start of the pandemic, 1,317,072 people have been tested in Mozambique for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, 772 of them in the previous 24 hours.
761 of these tests yielded negative results, while the 11 positive cases brought the total number of Covid-19 cases diagnosed in Mozambique to 225,451.
The positivity rate (the percentage of those tested found to be carrying the virus) fell from 1.75 per cent on Tuesday to 1.42 per cent on Wednesday.
Once again, the Ministry release reported no further deaths from Covid-19, and so the total death toll in Mozambique from the disease remains 2,201.
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The situation in the Covid-19 hospital wards remained unchanged. No patients were discharged and no new cases were admitted. The number of people under medical care in the wards remained four (three in Maputo city and one in Manica). Three of these patients were receiving supplementary oxygen.
The Ministry release reported six recoveries from Covid-19, all of them in Inhambane. The total number of recoveries thus rose to 223,186, which is slightly less than 99 per cent of all Covid-19 cases ever diagnosed in Mozambique.
The number of active cases of Covid-19 rose from 55 on Tuesday to 60 on Wednesday. The geographical distribution of the active cases was as follows: Maputo city, 30; Maputo province, 10; Sofala, six; Nampula, four; Gaza, three; Cabo Delgado, two; Zambezia, two; Manica, two; and Niassa, one.
There were no active cases in Tete or Inhambane.
