Since Saturday 27th November, it is a mess, especially with Mauritius banning flights from South Africa and being on the red lists of Saudi Arabia and the State of Gujrat as well as being on the list of one of the most affected African countries. The other countries on the list are the UK, South Africa, Brazil, China, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Israel, Bangladesh and Botswana. To be considerate, the state has imposed, at its own expenses, a quarantine for all incoming passengers from South Africa, but the management is being criticised and requests for repatriation are increasing.
This local mess follows the global panic. If South Africa is creating so much concern and fear in the world at the moment, even more so since the Omicron explosion, where the variants have manifested themselves the most, it is because the South African population is very poorly vaccinated, with less than a quarter of the population vaccinated. Thus, considered more vulnerable, the South African population is said to be more contagious.
150 stranded passengers demand repatriation
This is the number of requests received by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since the suspension of inbound and especially outbound flights. This air link between Mauritius and South Africa has been interrupted due to the preventive measures against Omicron. Among the 150 people are Mauritians who are established in that part of Southern Africa or otherwise, are on work permits. Some were in Mauritius for tourism and others to visit their family members. They did not take the ferry sent by South African Airways on Sunday 28th November. The Ministry has promised to expedite the repatriation process. In the meantime, they will have to wait and protect themselves from contamination.
Dr Gujadhur demands transparency
Dr Vasantrao Gujadhur is voicing out about Omicron and South Africa’s arrivals. He is now back on the frontline, denouncing both a laxity on the part of the Ministry of Health in the face of Omicron, but above all, a lack of transparency, if not, the clear absence of communication on the vaccination status and the status of the rapid tests carried out on Saturday 27th November. “I don’t understand why the Ministry is not making these results public. The population has a right to know,” he said. These passengers are mainly staying in two hotels in Quatre Bornes, the Palms and the Gold Crest, a city with over 50,000 inhabitants. Moreover, according to the former Director of Health Services, who is worried about the situation, the ministry should have carried out a PCR test on all the passengers but also on the staff who was on board, the transport employees who made the transfers of the passengers and all other persons who had contact with the passengers, vaccinated or not, cured from Covid. He took the example of how the Delta variant has affected Mauritians with the reopening of borders and fearing a repeat of the current situation. “According to studies, the contamination is rapid and recontamination is quite possible. The ministry needs to reveal the positive cases and the sequencing. We don’t know yet if any Omicron cases have reached to Mauritius. The public needs to be more vigilant.”
One positive case spotted
It is a passenger from this last flight from South Africa that landed on Saturday evening. The results of the Rapid Test done at the airport were positive and the person has been submitted to a sequencing test. Currently asymptomatic, he is in isolation in a hotel.
How dangerous is Omicron really?
For the time being, according to researchers publishing on the web, the Omicron variant is undoubtedly worrying but there is too much alarmist speculations at the moment. As the WHO stated in its press releases, “this variant presents a very high risk as theoretically the characteristics of Omicron are, compared to other variants, more dangerous, more contagious and more resistant to vaccines“. However, in practice, researchers do not have all the details on the contagiousness and its damage, given the backlog of conflicting data.
According to South African researcher, Angelique Coetzee, who is also president of the South African Medical Association, in a statement to AFP on Sunday 28th November, “patients present with mild symptoms” suggesting that this variant is more contagious but less dangerous.
According to French infectious diseases specialist, Yazdan Yazdanpanah, at a Scientific Council conference, “it is too early to make a statement on this variant because there is too little information. The evaluation of its dangerousness and the capacity of the human metabolism to fight against it would take two to three weeks and as regards to its resistance to vaccines, the studies could take several months. The only fight against the variant would be the existing ones, the maintenance of barrier actions and the continuation of vaccines as it is done against the Delta variant.”
However, according to Monday’s announcement by South African epidemiologist, Salim Abdool Karim, the number of cases in South Africa will soon exceed 10,000 per day. Omicron or not? Studies are underway.
