Total Delivers 12,000 COVID-19 Sample Collection Kits and 6000 Reagents to the INS

On July 15, Total, operator of the Mozambique LNG Project, delivered 12,000 COVID-19 sample collection kits, and 6,000 reagent and consumables kits to the National Institute of Health. The donation is to support health authorities in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The delivery of consumables took place at the Ministry of Health, in the presence of the Minister of Health, Managing Director of the INS and other health sector personnel.

Ronan Bescond, Country Manager and Vice President of the Mozambique LNG Project. stated that “this support is our contribution to strengthen capacity to collect samples from patients suspected of being infected with the virus at the level of health units and sentinel posts and in the laboratory processing of samples to confirm the diagnosis of COVID-19”. Bescond also expressed the acknowledgments of Total and its partners for the invaluable support provided by the health authorities in controlling COVID-19 at the Afungi camp.

In his turn, Armindo Tiago, The Minister of Health, acknowledged that “the support comes at a time when there are enormous difficulties in the availability of tests in the international market, therefore, we think that Total is a champion in the process of contributing to our better performance. This support is an important contribution to strengthening our diagnostic capacity and, of course, will contribute to efforts to a better control of the pandemic.

Armindo Tiago added that “testing combined with other actions will ensure the success of the disease control in Mozambique. It was in this perspective that, in order to territorially expand the Covid-19 diagnostic capacity in Mozambique, we started the decentralization of the testing process. We started by doing it in the province of Sofala and then went to the province of Nampula. We are also in Tete and Zambézia. Soon, as announced, with support of Total, we will expand the testing to the city of Pemba”.

In addition to the donations delivered to the Health Authority, the company has already supported the Government with the delivery of:

• 12,500 surgical masks to the INS, which are part of an initial batch of fifty thousand (50,000) masks for the health authorities,
• A large number of laboratory and testing equipment in Cabo Delgado, 12,000 masks and several other individual protection materials, - fifteen (15) infrared thermometers and thirty (30) spray pumps of ten (10) liters each, and on top of that the institution is currently making efforts to:
• Refurbish a 50-bed ward at the Pemba provincial hospital to isolate patients with COVID-19;
• Provide isolation facilities and acquire 5 Ventilators for the District Hospital of Palma;
• Provide ventilators for the provincial hospitals, and various personal protection items;
• Build a new laboratory in Pemba (45m2 container with five divisions - for testing COVID-19, equipped with complete laboratory and office equipment.