The Minister of Health assured today that all the country's hospitals are "operating as normal", on the first day of the strike announced by the doctors.

"The information we have, via telephone contact, is that throughout the country the National Health Service is operating normally," said Armindo Tiago, during a visit to the Matola Provincial Hospital in Maputo.

The government official is visiting hospital units to assess their functioning in the face of the strike announced by the Mozambican Medical Association (AMM), and has noted that "one or two doctors" are absent in some provinces.

The AMM began a 21-day national strike today, contesting the failure to comply with its demands in the application of the new Single Wage Scale (TSU).

At the Maputo Central Hospital, according to Lusa, everything is running normally.

"Everything is working normally, they're attending to us in the same way as always," said Dalina Américo, who returned to the hospital today, a week after giving birth by caesarean section.

Dalina returned to the maternity ward to have her stitches removed and then went to the laboratory, saying that she was "well looked after" in both places and "there doesn't seem to be a strike" at the largest hospital.

In November, the doctors postponed the strike, after meetings with the Economy and Health ministers, to "give the government time" to "implement the agreed principles".

However, of the 12 points discussed, agreements were reached on eight, but the Mozambican government complied with "only three".

The AMM points to the "constant change of interlocutors on the part of the government" and the lack of transparency about "how doctors' salaries are being processed or not" as some of the points that have determined the failure of negotiations so far.

The implementation of the TSU is being strongly contested by various professional classes, including doctors, judges and teachers.