The quarantine system will be succeeded by self-isolation at home under testing by the Ministry of Health as of 31 August. This applies for positive cases and contact cases with at least one dose of vaccine and who are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic. The system is already effective for health staff, hotel staff, cabin crews and others. However, the system is also applied to expatriates in dormitories.
Discrimination and risk of reprisals
There are over 60,000 foreign workers in Mauritius. These expatriates come from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Madagascar mainly. They are almost all vaccinated. The positive cases detected in recent weeks concern about ten dormitories. Foreign workers who are positive and in contact with the positive ones are confined there. But the conditions are to be deplored. The most concerned say that these conditions are conducive to provoke a massive contamination, the treatment as inhuman, discriminatory and can lead to reprisals from the countries concerned.
A dormitory is a human coop
Being vaccinated and deemed asymptomatic, they would not risk serious side effects. Their living areas are under close surveillance by police officers, the SSU and the SMF. Roadblocks have been set up at Tour Koenig, Pointes aux Sables, Coromandel, Beau Bassin, Triolet and Lallmatie. This has Fayzal Ally Beegun Coowar grumbling, “I understand the substitution of self-isolation at home in the current climate and the reopening of borders, but not for expatriates, the dormitories are not adequate. This goes against the very meaning of home-based self-isolation. A dormitory is first and foremost a human chicken coop. There are at least six in a room and at least fifty in a dormitory with shared sanitary facilities as well as kitchen and living room.”
Psychosis from surveillance
The success of this system of self-isolation is contested, as well as the psychosis created by the roadblocks and surveillance posts: “They are treated like prisoners under thorough surveillance. They feel humiliated and scared, there is nothing understandable about deploying such a police and military force to guard people confined in dormitories. They are there to work and are waiting to be rehabilitated,” says the president of the Textile Manufacturers & Allied Workers Union. He is calling on the government to come up with an urgent action plan and place these workers under proper quarantine. “If the government can’t invest in more hotel rooms, they could have thought of renting more spacious and better-ventilated locations and turning them into temporary dormitories where there would be a minimum of two people per room,” he says. He warns the government about one possible issue: “If these expatriates complain to their respective embassies, there may be reprisals for mistreatment. I wonder if the WHO would approve of this approach by our government”
Open door to unmanageable contamination
Dr Gujadhur agrees on the points of discrimination and foreign repercussions. “The WHO specifies that in a quarantine or isolation area the person should be separated in a hygienic manner or else spaced by a minimum of 1m30, have separate sanitary facilities or else disinfected after each use” he specifies. For him, “There is no common sense in converting dormitories into quarantine centres even for vaccinated and asymptomatic people. It is an open door to massive contamination which could prove to be unmanageable. We need to review this protocol and take other locations and develop them for this purpose,” says Dr Gujadhur. He is also in favour of the idea of self-isolation for vaccinated individuals who are tested positive and can afford self-isolation in compliance with the rules. He even says: “It will be better to impose home isolation for every case, whether it is a contact or a positive carrier of the virus, vaccinated or not. Individuals will be responsible for their own safety and the safety of their respective family members. There are about 150 health investigators, 13 health offices and so many health officers who can do fieldwork and door-to-door testing, rapid testing, proper PCR testing and vaccination. Having this decentralised immunisation system can only be good for the government and the ministry,” he concludes.
New normal
A quarantine costs Rs 2800 per day for one person. This is a considerable amount given the surge in positive cases. As announced by Health Minister Kailesh Jagutpal at his last National Communication Committee press conference, supported by Dr Kursheed Meetoo-Badulla, the Acting Regional Health Superintendent, “there is an increase in vaccines, greater testing capacity, 60% of the population inoculated with a first dose and 40% by the two recommended various vaccines against Covid made available in the public and private sectors, the island is approaching herd immunity so the increasing cases which would be more than 90% asymptomatic should not create a psychosis or lead to the red zone or quarantine. Self-isolation at home with self-responsibility of the Covid-positive person and regular testing by health authorities during the 14-day period would be effective”.
