VICTORIA, Seychelles (AP) – The Seychelles Island in the Indian Ocean has one of the world’s first COVID-19 vaccines, and this month it aims to break ground again by so-called ‘herd immunity’ reach.
In an interview with The Associated Press, President Wavel Ramkalawan said the goal should be reached by mid-March, ‘when we would have vaccinated 70,000 of our people. This represents 70% because our population is 100,000. ”
The country is heavily dependent on tourism, and when COVID-19 vaccinations began in Seychelles in January, some workers in the tourism industry were one of the first to receive them, along with health workers and the president himself.
By the end of February, about 44% of those vaccinated had a second chance.
The country benefited from the so-called vaccine diplomacy. The vaccination process began in January with 50,000 doses of the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine donated by the United Arab Emirates, a close trading partner, according to the Seychelles News Agency. The Emirati airline, Etihad Airways, has a significant stake in Air Seychelles.
And India donated 50,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India. The government of the Seychelles, which has a significant population of Indian descent, said they had bought an additional dose of the 40,000 AstraZeneca vaccine to have enough to vaccinate 70,000 people.
“We have many good friends who love us,” Vanessa Lesperance, a medical officer in the Indian Ocean, told the AP. “It made it easier for us to get a steady amount of vaccines.”
She added: “We look forward to returning to normal life.” But dr. Sanjeev Pugazhendi, along with the government’s health ministry, said the ‘new normal’ in the Seychelles would still include masking, hand washing and social distance at rallies, which ‘I think is here to stay.’
Such measures can last for years, depending on the vaccination of vaccines in the rest of the world, the duration of the vaccine and other factors.
“There will always be a constant risk of COVID … even the rest of the world can catch up,” Pugazhendi said.
So-called herd immunity is achieved when enough people are protected by infection or vaccination to make it difficult for a virus to continue spreading. The exact threshold for coronavirus is unknown, although some experts suggest that at least 70% of the population should be protected to keep the virus in check. However, the emergence of new alarming versions of the coronavirus further complicates the picture.
Since the pandemic began, Seychelles has had 2,849 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 11 deaths, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The first two positive cases of Seychelles were confirmed on March 14, 2020 in a Seychelles couple returning from a trip to Italy.
The country, like most other African countries, quickly introduced a nationwide exclusion in which most shops, businesses and schools were closed for three weeks. The airport is closed and prevents ships from bringing tourists.
Restrictions continue on public gatherings, restaurants and bars. Tourists flying to Seychelles must undergo recent coronavirus negative PCR tests and have a seven-day quarantine period at a designated hotel with a negative PCR test at the end of it.
The seven-day average daily new cases have dropped over the past two weeks, from 49 new cases per 100,000 people on February 15 to 32 new cases per 100,000 people on March 1, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
COVID-19 vaccines in the Seychelles are voluntary and free of charge. After those are vaccinated on the front line, the elderly are given preference. The shots are given in hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and some businesses. Now all residents can be vaccinated, except those under 18 years of age.
The publicity surrounding the vaccination, according to medical workers, helped dispel incorrect information about the shots.
“The moment we started handing out the vaccines to leaders, religious leaders and health workers, it started to decrease,” said Pugazhendi, the doctor of the Ministry of Health.
When they spoke to the AP last month, Pugazhendi and Lesperance said none of them had had a holiday since the pandemic began, with the tropical environment of Seychelles almost always in the offing.
“We’re more looking forward to the end of COVID than anyone else,” Lesperance said.
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Cara Anna in Nairobi contributed.
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