No fewer than 40 students have tested positive to the dreaded coronavirus (COVID-19) disease in Mozambique capital, Maputo, an official has revealed.
Deolinda Cossa, Provincial Director of Education and Human Development in Maputo, who announced the results on Monday, said the students were tested on last week.
According to Cossa, of the 40 students, 23 study at Casa do Gaiato Reception Centre in Maputo and had returned to home during the festive season.
The infected students are in institutional and home isolation.
The governor of Maputo province, Júlio Parruque, urged schools to intensify enforcement of public health measures in order to reverse the situation.
Parruque said wearing of face masks, social distancing and handwashing were mandatory.
On Tuesday morning, Mozambique has 27,446 total confirmed infections of the coronavirus, 249 deaths and 18,880 recoveries.
Meanwhile, President Filipe Nyusi last week said Mozambique has applied to access COVID-19 vaccines through the global vaccine distribution scheme co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The scheme gives Mozambique the option to buy doses for at least 20% of its population.
As a low income country, Mozambique qualifies for subsidised vaccines under the COVAX facility, which aims to make available 2 billion doses of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021.
“We have applied to the COVAX programme and we expect to get the vaccine to vaccinate 20% of vulnerable people”, Nyusi said in an address to the nation.
