Covid-19 update 389 active cases, 47% of total population vaccinated |16 April 2021
Dr Gedeon and Dr Louange during the press update (Photo: Thomas Meriton)
Seychelles has 389 active cases of Covid-19 as of April 14 and most of them are asymptomatic or with very mild symptoms.
This was announced by the Public Health Commissioner, Dr Jude Gédéon, in yesterday’s press conference at the Sheikh Khalifa Diagnostic Centre together with the Health Care Agency chief executive, Dr Danny Louange. They were accompanied by Dr Anne Gabriel who gave an explanation on the resumption of religious activities.
Out of the cumulative 4765 confirmed cases, 4376 have recovered. Among this number there are currently 6 cases involving health workers.
“We have noticed in the last few days that the majority of the people who are infected are those who have not been vaccinated. On April 12, out of the 124 positive cases 85% were not vaccinated. The message is clear; vaccination does protect you from getting infected and prevents you from getting severe symptoms. We have also noted that there are five clusters of infections on Mahé and one on an outer island. The trend we are seeing is that most cases are un-vaccinated or some have not taken their second dose yet,” explained Dr Gédéon.
Another major finding is from the report on testing for variants done at Kemri lab. “30 samples collected from June 2020 to March 2021 were sent to the lab and 14 had adequate genetic materials for genomic testing. 10 had original Wuhan strain and 4 samples taken in February identified the South African variants. No other variants were found,” revealed Dr Gédéon.
What does this imply? Dr Gédéon explained that this confirms the observed epidemiological behaviour of the outbreak. “Continued strict IPC measures are necessary and periodic genomic testing to determine circulating strains should be done. Vaccination campaign is bearing fruits as more cases are among unvaccinated.”
Vaccination update
Dr Gédéon noted that 47% of the total adult population (45,944) have completed the dose 1 and 2 of the different brands of vaccines. “This represents 66% of the targeted population out of 70,000. We need to encourage more people to come forward and do the vaccines as we cannot win a war without having enough people vaccinated.”
In terms of vaccines, Seychelles has surpassed Israel in administering the first dose – 66,250 but we are still in second place in the count of population fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
Dr Louange gave an update on the number of people in the quarantine facilities. “We have currently 17 patients at the Family Hospital at Perseverance including one patient in Intensive Care Unit, one patient with moderate symptoms and the rest with mild symptoms. There are four patients at the Coast Guard facility.”
At Avani there are 124 people and on Praslin there are 15 people in total.
Dr Louange also stated that the situation at North East Point Hospital has been contained and there is close follow-up on the patients.
Once again both doctors urged the population to keep taking all necessary measures to protect themselves and others. “We are happy to note that the majority of businesses are complying with the SOPs and functioning well. We also congratulate the Ministry of Education for doing a wonderful job in the schools. Sa viris pa ni pti ni gro, i pa get grander ou biznes pour propaze. So better take all precautions. Discotheques are still closed for now and si ou anvi danse, danse se ou”, Dr Gédéon concluded on a light hearted note.
Vidya Gappy
