A total confusion. Mauritius has been reclassified as Level 4 by the CDC. The cases for this Wednesday have doubled and three deaths have been recorded from the New ENT Hospital during the last 24 hours. Pfizer-BioNTech is asking the United States to allow a second booster dose against Covid-19, initially, for those over 65 years. But according to Dr. Ashwamed Dinassing, the Director of Public Health Services, the weekly numbers are dropping and thus, Mauritius will have already reached its peak. How to feel about this opposing news?
Mauritius: Level 4- very high
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assigns this “level 4: very high“, when the country records more than 500 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants over 28 days. According to World Health Organization’s (WHO) indicators, Mauritius has a 189% increase in weekly cases. The CDC’s advice is to avoid Mauritius or to be vaccinated before coming to the island. Mauritius is part of a list of 125 countries classified at level 4 for the month of March.
3 deaths and 196 new cases
The deaths of three patients admitted to the New ENT Hospital have been reported to the Police. The victims, aged 71, 73, and 77 years old respectively, were admitted due to their serious and symptomatic conditions at Covid 19. The Ministry of Health reported that all three patients had multiple comorbidities.
The number of positive cases increased from 70 cases on Tuesday 15th March to 196 cases on Wednesday 16th March. These are only the results of PCR tests conducted by the Ministry of Health. The number of admissions is 59, including 4 at New ENT Hospital as compared to 56 admissions on Tuesday 15th March. The rate of vaccination recorded is 1002 412 people for the first dose, 966 309 for the second and 557 006 people for the third/booster dose.
In Rodrigues, 27 new cases have been recorded during the last 24 hours. The health authorities believe that the peak of Covid has already passed and the situation is stabilizing. In one week, the average number of cases detected is between 30 and 50. Thus, 27 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the last 24 hours. The island currently has 263 active cases while 9,116 people are considered as completely cured.
A second booster dose proposed
Following data from Israel at the time that the Omicron variant was circulating widely, Pfizer and BioNTech say that an additional booster dose of the messenger RNA vaccine will increase immunogenicity” – the ability to elicit an immune response – and reduce rates of confirmed infection and severe disease“. So as of Tuesday 15th March, the two U.S. and German pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer and BioNTech, have asked the U.S. drug agency to allow an additional booster dose of their vaccine for people aged 65 years and older. Israel is the first country to offer a 4th dose of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine since the beginning of January to those over 60 years and since the end of January 2022, to those aged over 18 and who are at risk. According to the Israeli Ministry of Health, “it allows for a three-to five-fold increase in antibodies as compared to the third dose“. This second booster dose is on the agenda in several European countries, including Denmark, Spain, Germany and Sweden.
Dr. Dinassing: “Mauritius has passed the peak of contaminations”
The observation of the Director of Public Health Services stems from the decreasing trend recorded week after week. Dr. Ashwamed Dinassing says that “we have definitely passed the peak of the infections. We are on a downward path. The number of PCR tests has decreased. At the peak, we were seeing 16,000 cases per week. That number has dropped to 12,000. Now we’re down to 10,000 cases a week.” He continues on the importance of vaccination and booster dose, “so that even if a new variant emerges, it will not be too serious and we are able to cope“. It is important to know that Dr. Dinassing estimates that the positive cases on a daily basis, including the Rapid Antigen Tests done in the flu clinics, are between 2500 and 4000 cases.
