Maputo — The Mozambican health authorities on Sunday reported a further nine cases of the Covid-19 respiratory disease, and 25 recoveries.
According to a Sunday press release from the Ministry of Health, of the new cases, who were all Mozambican citizens, six were women and three were men. They varied in age from 15 to 56. Five were from Maputo city and four from Sofala. There were no positive cases reported from any of the other nine provinces.
Since the start of the pandemic, 1,379,658 people have been tested in Mozambique for the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, 218 of them in the previous 24 hours. 209 of these tests yielded negative results, and the nine who tested positive raised the total number of positive cases diagnosed in Mozambique to 230,001.
The positivity rate (the percentage of those tested found to be carrying the coronavirus) rose from 2.43 per cent on Thursday, to 3.72 per cent on Friday, falling back to 2.35 per cent on Saturday, and then rising once more to 4.13 per cent on Sunday.
No Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospital on Sunday, but two new cases were admitted, one in Maputo city and one in Niassa. The number of patients undergoing medical care in the Covid-19 wards rose from 11 on Saturday to 13 on Sunday. Five of these patients were in Niassa, four in Maputo, three in Gaza and one in Zambezia. Five of these patients were in intensive care, receiving supplementary oxygen.
The Ministry release reported no further deaths from Covid-19 on Sunday. The total Covid-19 death toll in Mozambique thus remained 2,119.
The 25 recoveries from the disease were all from Sofala. The total number of recoveries now stands at 227,554, which is 98.94 per cent of all Covid-19 cases ever diagnosed in Mozambique.
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The number of active cases of Covid-19 rose from 214 on Thursday to 240 on Saturday, and then fell back to 224 on Sunday. The geographical distribution of the active cases was as follows: Maputo city, 38; Zambezia, 36; Tete, 32; Niassa, 31; Gaza, 24; Cabo Delgado, 20; Nampula, 20; Sofala, 14; Inhambane, five; Manica, three; and Maputo province, one.
The Ministry press release also reported that a further 373 people were vaccinated against Covid-19 on Sunday. The total number fully vaccinated against the disease now stands at 14,661,882, which is 96.4 per cent of all citizens aged 18 and above.
15,412,258 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 593,969 have received a booster dose.
Three of the provinces have exceeded their vaccination targets - they are Nampula (105.2 per cent of the target); Zambezia (101.4 per cent); and Tete (100.9 per cent). By far the worst result comes from Maputo city. Although this is the place where the vast majority of the population is within easy walking distance of a vaccination post, the city has only met 71.8 per cent of its target.
