Health Minister Armindo Tiago on 10 January called for strengthened preventive measures against cholera and Covid-19. Speaking to reporters after the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet), Tiago noted that cases of Covid-19 have been on the increase across the globe, particularly in Asia and Latin America.

"The Council of Ministers is recommending strengthened control and prevention measures", he said. "We all know what they are - particularly the washing of hands and vaccination".

Over 96 per cent of adult Mozambicans were vaccinated against Covid-19 last year. Tiago said the country has sufficient stocks of vaccines to provide booster shots.

The number of new cases of Covid-19 reported by the health authorities is fluctuating. Thus, there were 59 new cases reported on 8 January, but only seven on 9 January.

As for cholera, Tiago said that cases have been reported from Lago and Lichinga districts, in Niassa province, from Caia, in Sofala, and from Tete city. To date, 1,016 cases of cholera have been notified and eight deaths, all of them in Niassa.

The disease appears to have spread into Mozambique from Malawi, where there have been 21,024 cases and about 700 cholera deaths.

The lethality rate in Mozambique remains low, which Tiago attributed to the timely treatment of patients and the availability of medicines for the disease.

"Poor sanitation contributes to the spread of the disease", said Jose Manuel, the Niassa provincial health director, cited in the Maputo daily newspaper "Noticias" on 11 January, adding that more than half of the inhabitants of the province do not have access to clean drinking water.

Some of the 655 cases of cholera confirmed in Niassa, the director said, were admitted to the 15 treatment centres in a very weak state of health.

But Manuel guaranteed that the provincial deposit of medicines in Lichinga received a few days ago significant quantities of drugs to face the outbreak, notably 7,000 units of rehydration serum.