In June 2020, when the country still had only 426 confirmed cases of covid-19, the CIP published https://cipmoz.org/2020/06/09/covid-19-em-mocambique-uma-reflexao-sobre-a-progressao-e-as-medidas-de-prevencao-e-contencao/ an article by the Doctors. Ferruccio Vio and F. Mudender, warning that the option of home isolation of people infected by the new coronavirus would not be effective to contain community transmission, which was the most feared level of transmission at the time. The article recommended, for Mozambique, the shelter-hospital model, which had been adopted in several countries, including sub-Saharan Africa. At the time, we used Senegal as an example.
This Wednesday, when announcing that 50% of beds reserved for Covid-19 patients in public hospitals were occupied, and in private hospitals, 80% of beds are occupied, the President of the Republic assumed that the Government's strategy to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the long run failed. If infection levels continue at current rates, in two months Mozambique will have exhausted hospital beds for Covid-19 patients.
The introduction of the model of shelter-hospitals for the isolation of those infected by the new coronavirus continues to be recommended for Mozambique, and for this reason the CIP republishes the main findings and recommendations of 7 months ago.
