Adriano Manuel, who spoke this Friday to Lusa news agency about the changes made, Thursday, by the Government, with regard to measures to prevent and combat the spread of covid-19 in the country, said that vaccinating is the best option at this point.
"I am of the opinion that the vaccine is mandatory, I agree, because we do not have enough human resources if the health system collapses," said Adriano Manuel.
As of the 15th of this month, it is mandatory to present a vaccination certificate to access public services and institutions, for citizens over 18 years of age, essentially those who have direct contact with the public.
Those who are not vaccinated will have to present a negative covid-19 test, which will be valid for one week.
According to the president of the National Union of Doctors of Angola, in many countries where between 70 and 80 percent of the population's vaccination has been completed, mortality has substantially decreased, regardless of the side effects of the vaccine.
"The studies indicate that in countries that vaccinated there was a high decrease in the mortality rate, which is the case in Spain, Italy, Portugal, probably from there that the Government takes the decision that everyone has to get the vaccine", he stressed.
For Adriano Manuel "there are advantages of this vaccine".
"I personally had covid and had the two doses of vaccine and the severity was not great, I did not need to be hospitalized, I know other vaccinated people who had covid and the severity was not great either - there are also, but they are very rare – and they reached a serious condition of the disease. So we have to look at the pros and cons. At this point it is much more advantageous to have the vaccine", he considered.
However, the doctor defends the need to carry out a study to analyze what will be at the base of this increase in cases and deaths, from the moment the population began to be vaccinated.
"We need - and this is what we have not done - to study to what extent, because it is noticed that covid started with greater intensity in our country when people started to be vaccinated, so it is a question that we must ask, to what extent does this coincidence exist: vaccine and the increase in cases, we have to study, it is a case to study," he said.
On the other hand, Adriano Manuel also questions the link between the increase in cases and greater testing.
"Because previously people could have a flu, initially if they had no other symptoms, they weren't doing a covid test, but today people with a flu are having a covid test. So we're testing more and we're having more cases too," he argued.
Adriano Manuel reiterated that "between making the vaccine, with the aim of preventing or substantially reducing the severity, and not doing it, the ideal is to do it, because the country is not in a position to meet the demand if we reach the point, for example, of what happened in Italy, Spain".
"Angola is one of the African countries with the worst health system, I think this attitude seems to be sensible if we have to take into account all that I mentioned. A weak health system, lack of human resources, lack of material, so much diagnosis as for biosafety, the country does not have this, so it is better to choose to vaccinate", he stressed.
Urged to comment on the authorities' retreat in the access to beaches and public swimming pools, the union leader is of the opinion that if there is no inspection, it is the most correct measure.
"I'm not saying it's the places, it's not the beach per se. What's happening is that the people who go there don't comply with the biosecurity measures. I think if people complied with the measures, the distancing, that's probably it wouldn't happen, it's not what happens now, so we don't have much alternative either," he said.
The Health Minister said Thursday that the Government intends to vaccinate 60 percent of the country's eligible population (citizens over 18) against covid-19 by next December, ie, 7.8 million inhabitants older than 18 years.
To reach the goal, Sílvia Lutucuta said that health authorities need to immunize 100,000 people daily, urging citizens to join vaccination posts in "compliance with their civic and patriotic duty".
Angola recorded, in the last 24 hours, 644 confirmed cases of covid-19, the highest number of infections in a day since the beginning of the pandemic, with 11 deaths associated with the disease and 386 recoveries.
Covid-19 has caused at least 4,771,320 deaths worldwide, out of 233.23 million infections by the new coronavirus registered since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the most recent report by the Agence France-Presse.
The respiratory disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, detected at the end of 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China, and currently with variants identified in several countries.
