"We are in the middle of the second wave with rapid growth," said, in Luanda, Silvia Lutucuta, comparing the increase in cases with the "peak" of the disease in October 2020, "which was one of the worst scenarios," and is having a faster acceleration.
"To aggravate the scenario we have circulation in Luanda of the South African strain and the English strain," a variant that the Health official said is having "a rampant growth affecting entire families without distinction of age and sex," with effects on young people, adolescents children, many of them symptomatic.
The deaths, she stressed, are also in considerable numbers and are affecting young people.
"We already have young people dying", alerted the minister, stressing that the strains are of great transmissibility and giving as an example the tests done in the last three days and that revealed the English strain in 260 cases.
According to the minister, at this time there is already "a total of 523 cases, looking at the English strain and the South African strain", indicating that in the current scenario there is a greater possibility of having more members of the same family infected and also more deaths.
"We are very worried and for this reason we had to retreat, also because the measures are not being fulfilled," said Silvia Lutucuta, lamenting that people are not wearing masks, have forgotten to wash their hands, and are promoting parties and large gatherings.
"All this can contribute to the collapse of the health system. If we don't comply with the measures we will have a worse scenario than in October last year," she warned.
The minister also addressed those arriving from abroad, calling for strict compliance with home quarantine.
"The fact that you are negative in the 72 hours before and in the post-disembarkation test does not mean that at some point in your trip you have not had exposure [to the virus] and are still in an incubation period, because viral replication can happen up to the 7th or 10th day," she explained.
According to Silvia Lutucuta there have already been people who arrived from abroad, did the regulatory testing and did not comply with the quarantine, but tested positive a few days later, "dragging with them members of their family, sometimes with deaths.
This Wednesday, the government reviewed the measures to prevent covid-19, given the increase in cases in recent weeks, with emphasis on increased penalties, reduced hours and limiting the capacity of spaces to avoid crowding.
The measures were revealed, in a press conference, by the Minister of State and Chief of Staff of the President of the Republic, Adão Almeida.
The covid-19 pandemic has caused at least 3,137,725 deaths worldwide, resulting from more than 148.6 million cases of infection, according to an assessment made by the French agency AFP.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China.
