January 29, President of Mozambique New Zealand, President of the Southern African Development Community, delivered a speech on the pandemic situation in southern Africa.
In the first two weeks of January 2021 alone, the Southern African region had as many as 346,010 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, accounting for 22 percent of all confirmed cases in the region since the outbreak began, he said.
Variant strains have appeared in South Africa, Zambia and Botswana, among the member countries of the Southern African Development Community.
The total number of daily new cases in member countries accounts for more than 50% of the daily new cases on the continent. The medical system is already overburdened.
New Zealand called on citizens of all SADC member states to unite to adopt unified policies and guidelines to fight the pandemic.
Some countries that have passed the WHO pre-qualification later will receive new vaccines, so he suggested that member countries should develop a regional cooperation strategy to pool vaccine resources and allocate them according to the level of risk.
In addition, member states should also formulate a regional strategy on the safety monitoring of entry and exit personnel, the cross-border movement of vehicles and goods, etc. Only by working together can we defeat the pandemic.
On the same day, the Ministry of Health of Mozambique reported that there were 1,275 new confirmed cases, 9 new deaths and 759 new cured cases in Mozambique.
It has reached the highest number of new confirmed cases in a single day since the pandemic.
