With 115 new positive cases on Wednesday, 74 cases on Tuesday 25 January, 148 cases on Monday 24 January, the positive rate is fluctuating. The case is similar for hospital admissions combined with 9 admissions on Monday, 40 on Tuesday and 28 on Wednesday. Nevertheless, Dr Vasantrao Gujadhur says that daily statistics do not reflect the pandemic reality of the country and the Health Ministry should reconsider publishing Rapid Test results and Dr Laurent Mussango has to explain the rates published on the OMS website.
Currently
Since March 2021, the Ministry of Health has registered 25,570 Covid 19 positive cases, of which 24, 687 are cured patients. Of the 28 new admissions recorded on Wednesday 26 January, 2 cases were considered worrisome enough for admission to the New ENT Hospital, Vacoas. On the other hand, 20 patients were considered cured and sent home from the regional hospitals.
Vaccination is progressing gradually with 972,794 people vaccinated, 929,553 people receiving their second doses and 329,273 people receiving the third/booster dose.
Dr Gujadhur: Statistics are intentionally distorted
“The disparity is too high”, says Dr Vasantrao Gujadhur. The positivity rate recorded by the ministry is being questioned by health professionals as well as observers of the pandemic situation in the country. The Ministry’s figures do not match or even come close to the figures issued by the World Health Organisation on its website, which shows 70,440 cases from 3 January 2020 to date: “From March 2020 to March 2021, we have registered only a thousand cases, including 337 confirmed local cases in April 2020 and a multiplication of isolated scattered cases in quarantine or imported cases. And from March 2021 to date, the country has recorded 25570 cases. The WHO count for 25 January is 222 cases and this is consistent when we add the rate for 24 and 25 January, that is 148 plus 74. How do we explain this disparity between the two totals?” asks Dr Vasantrao Gujadhur, the former Director of Health Services. “I ask the question to Dr Mussango: Where is WHO collecting these figures published on its website?” Dr Gujadhur said that the Ministry of Health is obliged to collect and make public everything that falls under the 4 recommendations of the Pandemic Status Indication, including the incidence rate per 100,000 population, the rate of hospitalisation in the country, the rate of deaths and the different types of tests performed. “The Ministry of Health says they are not taking the Rapid Antigen Test into consideration, either at the individual level, the health authorities in the private sector or even in the public hospitals. They should because if we take the case of an individual who is self-tested positive, when he goes to the hospital, he gets a second rapid test and not a PCR test. If he is positive again, he is asked to self-isolate, so he becomes a Covid positive case, but he is not in the records if he is from Rapid Antigen Test origin! It is a positive case not considered in the statistics. The same goes for cases in private clinics or home hospitalisation,” he says. He recommends that the Ministry of Health revert to the old system and reconsider the Rapid Antigen Test results as the rest of the world does and make them public. “The Ministry is knowingly misreporting the incidence rate. According to my analysis, if all the tests are considered, the daily figure should be multiplied by at least three. There is nothing to be gained by hiding the situation of Covid 19. It cannot be rosy in our country while we are classified in the red by the CDC, France, Reunion and even India, where the Mauritian has to go through a minimum of 7 days of isolation before having free access in these countries”, ends Dr Gujadhur. He states bluntly that the statistics are intentionally skewed and that he expects a further spike in the rate of positive cases in the coming weeks, especially with the resumption of classes on 02 February.
