The weekly review is sad and worrying. The Ministry of Health has announced 18 deaths for the period from 25 February to 4 March, as well as 1553 positive cases identified by PCR tests. Of the 61 samples taken from 01 to 05 February, sequencing shows that they are all Omicron variants.
Zero Delta
The Delta variant is decreasing. After 3 cases of the Delta variant out of 71 samples for the period from 23 January to 13 February and 0 at this last sequencing, we can consider that the country is, for the moment, 100% omicron positive with 40/40 cases on the territory and 21/21 in Rodrigues. The next sequencing on more recent samples will tell us more about the nature of the virus in circulation. The director of the ENT hospital and national coordinator for Covid-19, Dr Soobiraj Sok Appadu has reminded us earlier this week that Omicron is certainly less fatal than Delta, but not for everyone. Omicron cannot be trivialised as it can be as virulent as Delta for people with frail conditions and suffering from other comorbidities. Protection remains the only solution.
High rate
The rate of positivity is strong for the past week, with 1553 local positives and 88 imported cases in PCR tests. For this Friday, the rate is 277 cases. With Dr Soobiraj Sok Appadu’s reminder, we understand that the rate of positive cases is much higher as the daily total of flu clinics varies between 2500 and 4000. The remaining Rapid Tests and not forgetting the self-tests are not taken into account in the Ministry of Health’s count. The death rate is 18 for the past week, and for the month of February, the count is 68 confirmed deaths recorded from New ENT Hospital. These are, of course, the cases that health professionals considered to be directly linked to Covid 19. Cases of positive patients, whose death is attributed to another condition, are not counted.
Admissions and vaccinations
The New ENT Hospital has recorded 13 admissions for this period. Of these, 6 were on ventilators, of which 4 were unvaccinated and 2 were vaccinated with two doses. The other 7, who are on life support, include 3 unvaccinated and 4 vaccinated with two doses. To date, the ENT hospital has admitted 1 patient with serious condition. The 5 regional hospitals report 61 admissions for this 04 March and 286 for the past week.
Mauritius has 1,000,075 primary vaccine recipients. 962,399 people have received two doses and 524,337 people have received the third/booster dose. 239,473 received Johnson & Johnson, 8806 received Sinopharm, 2,825 received Astra Zeneca, 213,458 received Pfizer and 49,872 received Moderna.
The Pfizer campaign for adolescents shows 74,034 for the first dose and 64,899 for the second.
Rodrigues: Relaxed travel conditions
The vaccination campaign is also progressing in Rodrigues. 72.80% of the population received the first dose, 70.74% the second and 9,903 the third. This reassures the people of Rodrigues and Mauritius as well as the future tourists to this destination where the Mauritian government has removed the obligations of PCR tests and quarantine. This measure concerns both work and residence permit holders. The official communiqué of the Ministry of Health, however, specifies the condition of vaccination! Thus, the exempted traveller, whether Mauritian or Rodriguan, will have to prove that he has been vaccinated with the booster dose or that his vaccination with the second dose or the single dose with Johnson & Johnson dates back to less than six months ago. For the foreign traveller, his second dose must be recognised by our government and must prove that his vaccination was done more than 14 days before his trip. And for those inoculated with Johnson & Johnson, 28 days. If the traveller has already tested positive for Covid 19, he/she will have to present a proof of his/her infection and also prove that he/she has had at least one vaccination after his/her infection.
