Seychelles gets new quarantine centre • President Faure visits facilities |02 May 2020
A view of the new quarantine centre from the outside (Photo: Joena Meme)
Seychelles has a new quarantine centre situated on South East Island (Il-di-Swet), Pointe Larue and President Danny Faure visited the facility on Thursday morning.
The facility, which belongs to the government of Seychelles and was used by the military force before, was renovated by the Green Island Construction Company (GICC) at the cost of R3.5 million.
President Faure visited the two blocks of 32 rooms for both single and double occupancy, and families.
The quarantine centre also includes accommodation facilities for healthcare workers.
Residents at this facility will be able to move around freely as the compound has been fenced and is isolated.
The rooms are equipped with en-suite bathrooms and air conditioning, and there is consideration to include other amenities such as Wi-Fi internet services and televisions.
GICC head Glenny Savy noted that “about a month ago we were contacted by the department of health to assist them urgently by doing some repairs on this facility, which belonged to the army and which will be used by people affected by the COVID-19. We promised them to deliver the project in one month’s time which we have done to their satisfaction. The first building was completed two weeks ago and today we are handing the keys for both blocks.”
Health Care Agency chief executive, Dr Danny Louange, explained that “this facility on South East Island is an addition to the other facilities that we are already using for quarantine. This facility falls within our plan to contain the outbreak and as we were looking for new places, we visited this place at the beginning of the outbreak and it was not appropriate to have people quarantined here. So we decided to renovate this facility and make it usable as a proper quarantine facility.”
Dr Louange also noted that it is important to have these facilities available in case we end up having a cluster of cases of COVID-19. “If we have a second outbreak we will use these facilities to admit patients with mild symptoms. More bedrooms will help us in containing the virus. In our first plan, we predicted that if there was a cluster of people affected, we will have approximately 500 people infected. Out of which 400 would have mild symptoms which can be cured by staying in quarantine places such as South East Island. If our system is overwhelmed then we will have to keep the patients at home as recommended by the World Health Organisation. Now we have over 150 rooms and 175 beds ready for any outbreak,” said Dr Louange.
Dr Louange noted that this new centre is secured and no one will be allowed to bring commodities for their family members. “It will be a full board service and people in quarantine are not on a luxury holiday!”
At the end of the tour, Mr Savy handed over the keys of the new facility to Dr Louange.
President Faure was accompanied on the visit by the secretary of state for Health, Marie-Pierre Lloyd, Mr Savy, Dr Louange, and the Public Health Commissioner, Dr Jude Gédéon.
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