This was the conclusion of the last meeting of the Cabinet for the year 2021, held on Thursday 30 December. As of 29 December, there were 477 active cases, 14 of which required admission to New ENT Hospital. For the last 24 hours, the country has recorded 59 new cases and 1 death as of Wednesday afternoon. In addition, the Cabinet voted to ban the importation of Covid-19 Rapid Antibody Tests.
Admissions and deaths
Of these 59 new cases, 2 have been admitted to the New ENT Hospital and 6 to the 5 regional hospitals combined from which 11 have been certified cured and discharged. Since 5 March, the country has recorded 23,421 cases of infection, of which 21,881 have been cured of the virus.
From 22 to 28 December, 57 cases detected by PCR tests were from passengers and 295 locally. Of the 14 patients admitted to New ENT Hospital, 4 are on ventilators, 2 of whom are vaccinated, and 10 are on oxygen, 4 of whom are fully inoculated. For the same period, regional hospitals have registered 92 new patients. And in this week, the country recorded 13 deaths, 3 of which were under 60 years of age, 6 unvaccinated and 7 fully vaccinated. 12 had co-morbidities. In quarantine, the Ministry of Health recorded 26 inbound passengers.
Vaccination on the rise
949,894 or 77.4% of the population received the first dose, 913,563 or 74.5% the second and 184,429 or 14% the third/booster dose of which 143,127 were from Johnson & Johnson, 8,716 from Sinopharm, 2,825 from AstraZeneca and 29,761 from Pfizer. 46,899 adolescents, aged 12-18 years, received a first dose and 34,915 both doses.
Regarding the Covid-19 Rapid Antibody Test import ban, it falls under the Consumer Protection Protection (Control of Imports) Regulations 2017. Further information will follow.
New ENT Hospital regrets the death of Cossila Taunoo, 61 years, on Wednesday afternoon. She had been vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson since last September but had been battling cancer.
« Fixed penalty » accumulates
25,209 people have been fined since 17 August 2021 for not wearing a mask or wearing a mask incorrectly. And by 29 December alone, the police had served 296 people with fixed penalties. The police are getting tougher on this health offence. As a reminder, this fine is up to Rs 2000.
Tocilizumab controversy – another version of Reunion
According to the Honorary Consul of Mauritius in Reunion, Younous Ravate, the Ministry was aware of the facilitation of the emergency importation of Tocilizumab. This facilitation to the importer, CPN Distributors was done on the same day, that is, on Saturday 09 November upon request by officers of the Ministry. According to the statement of the Honorary Consul, “I was indeed contacted by officers of the Mauritius Ministry of Health to facilitate the importer in his efforts to obtain Tocilizumab. It was a Saturday and everything was closed. It was difficult for me, but I was greatly helped by the Prefect who referred me to his Head Cabinet to deal with customs and the police… The Minister has called me personally afterwards to thank me and told me that your Prime Minister was very grateful and that he was aware“, says Younous Ravate. This is a statement that could change everything in the ICAC investigation. As a reminder, the Health Minister, Kailesh Jagutpal had confirmed that he did not interfere in any procurement matters and in particular, this ‘Urgent Procurement’ and the Prime Minister had said that he was aware of the Opposition Leader’s PNQ case.
