It is official. The end of the TDR test on arrival at Ivato International Airport and at other airports in the regions of Madagascar has been decreed by the Council of Ministers. It is the same for the end of PCR test at the departure of the airports of the countries in air connection with the Big Island. These decisions were taken following the decrease in cases of Covid-19 observed in the country over the last four weeks, according to the report of the Council of Ministers.
Sources at the Ministry of Public Health confirm that 11 new cases were recorded between August 6 and 9, 6 new cases from July 30 to August, 75 cases from July 23 to 29, 127 cases from July 16 to 23 and 189 cases from July 9 to 15. According to these statistics, Madagascar is on the point of really limiting the spread of the coronavirus. Even vaccination, whose rate is still very low despite the government’s plan to vaccinate half of the population against this virus, may no longer be necessary.
The new variant of Covid-19, the one that is currently circulating, would not lead to a deterioration of the patient’s health and would not cause the severe form of the disease. In other words, it is not too resistant to existing treatment protocols and patients may well be cured after following medical prescriptions.
This new provision is also in response to the request of tourism operators. On several occasions, they have indicated that PCR tests on departure and RDT tests on arrival constitute an obstacle, even a brake for the development of the sector. However, tourism has suffered greatly from this health crisis since the first cases were discovered in the country in March 2020. It is only since a few months that Madagascar has decided to open international flights so that tourists can travel to the country.
“Thus, the Council of Ministers has taken the decision to facilitate the entry of tourists into the country (…) yet tourism is an economic sector that feeds several million people and is a source of foreign currency for the economy,” says the report of the Council of Ministers.
Nevertheless, the Malagasy State invites each citizen to protect himself against the coronavirus because “health is very important”. In addition to encouraging the population to be vaccinated, the country’s authorities continue to promote the CVO and CVO+ whose effectiveness against the epidemic has been confirmed.
