SPREAD OF NEW INFECTIONS PROMPTS RAPID VACCINATION PLANS
(Posted 06th January 2021)
For long has the Seychelles been spared from a wider spread of the Corona Virus, aka #COVID19, but over the past two weeks have infections gone up substantially.
Now standing at 354 – up from just over 200 with only a handful of active cases at the end of last year – which includes 129 active cases, has the sudden community spread alarmed the Seychelles government. The spread is all the more worrying as cases have now been recorded beyond the main island of Mahe in Praslin and La Digue, the second and third most populated islands of the archipelago. The islands have sadly also recorded the first victim of the disease a few days ago.
It is understood that as a matter of urgency, a vaccination plan will be rolled out, making use of some initial 50.000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine which were donated in late 2020 by the United Arab Emirates to the Seychelles.
The doses, of which two need to be administered over the space of two weeks, will not be enough for the entire population but are thought to make a start to create immunity among high risk population segments like health workers and the elderly.
In comparison stand the infection rates among the other Vanilla islands across the Indian Ocean as follows:
Mauritius 531 infections overall with 8 active cases
Comoros 995 infections overall with 223 active cases
Mayotte 6045 infections overall with 3025 active cases
Reunion 9118 infections overall with 370 active cases
Madagascar 17767 infections overall with 207 active cases
The pandemic has wreaked havoc across the archipelago’s vital tourism industry, pre-pandemic the leading sector of the economy, seeing arrivals to the paradise islands decimated with a drop by end 2020 of 70 percent.
https://atcnews.org/2021/01/04/first-covid19-death-in-seychelles-reported/
