The Mozambican government predicts that, in the worst case scenario, around 20 million people could be infected with the novel coronavirus over the next six months.

“This would be our worst case scenario,” Deputy Director-General of the National Institute of Health (INS) Eduardo Samo Gudo told a Covid-19 update press conference in Maputo.

The number was released yesterday by the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC), which met its coordinating council in Maputo to analyse the emergency situation that the country is going through.

Samo Gudo stressed that the authorities were “doing everything” possible to prevent the country from reaching this level, but planning must take “worst case scenario” figures into account.

34 billion meticais

“The health system has to be prepared for the worst case scenario. But measures are in hand to avoid this scenario, and Mozambique is an excellent example in terms of anticipating preventative measures,” Gudo said.

The INGC report, which is still to be presented to the Council of Ministers, indicates that addressing a worst case scenario will cost a total of 34 billion meticais (€464 million euros).

“This budget will be reviewed shortly after the budgeting of activities in the sectors of gender, water supply and industry and trade,” the report reads.

The INGC recommends the mobilisation of additional resources to contain the spread of the pandemic, as well as the building of field hospitals on the outskirts of the main urban centres.

With still only 39 official cases, Mozambique has been living under a state of emergency since the beginning of April, with schools, entertainment and leisure facilities closed, public meetings of all types prohibited and the issuing of entry visas suspended.

By last Monday, the African continent has registered a total of 1,119 deaths and an increase in infections from 21,096 to 22,275 across 52 countries, according to the African Union Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

Globally, according to an AFP report, the Covid-19 pandemic has already killed more than 165,000 people and infected almost 2.5 million people in 193 countries and territories.

More than 537,000 patients are considered fully recovered.

Source: Lusa