Covid-19 Pandemic restrictions to be extended until end of February By Elsie Pointe |12 February 2021

Dr Gedeon and Dr Louange during the press conference yesterday (Photo: Jude Morel)

The restriction measures that have been in place since end of December and that were reinforced on January 23 are expected to remain in place until the end of February, the public health commissioner has said.

Dr Jude Gedeon explained that the platinum committee for Covid-19 met via tele-conference on Wednesday during which it established that easing of restrictions will not be on the cards for now.

However, with thought of the debilitating impact of the restrictions on businesses, the committee has revised certain measures and will now allow some non-groceries stores and businesses to operate during this period.

“As we come closer to the date when restrictions were expected to be revised in mid-February, we found ourselves in a situation where we still do not have adequate control over. We still have to keep certain measures in place and modify others,” said Dr Gedeon.

“This is in full cognisant of the situation in the business community and being sensitive to the difficulties they are facing vis-à-vis their livelihoods, and their survival in certain instances.”

“This is why after extensive discussions with the business community, Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industries (SCCI), with various experts in the health sector we made certain recommendations to the platinum committee […] These were extensively discussed for several hours and we came to the agreement that most of the measures need to continue with the exception of measures that can be modified.”

According to the modified measures, non-groceries stores will be able to open their doors after they have satisfied a set of criteria that they will need to self-administer. These include setting up standard of procedures such as placing hand sanitisers at the door for their customers to use and crowd control within the shop.

This means that stationery shops, snack shops, electronic shop and so forth will be able to resume their daily operations, albeit with conditions.

“Until they have satisfied these criteria and have been assessed by the public health authority, they will not be able to open.”

Dr Gedeon stressed that these criteria will also be applicable to groceries stores, some off which he said have not been toeing the line when it comes to Covid-19 prevention, and may find themselves unable to operate if they do not abide by the measures.

Barber shops and hairdressing salons have also been given the green light but with the added conditions that clients book their appointments and the wearing of face shields by the barbers or hair stylists.

If the situation improves in the coming weeks, the authorities will relook at the measures in place and ease the restrictions gradually.

In regards to the resumption of schools, Dr Gedeon noted that the Ministry of Education has pushed back the reopening of schools to the end of February or beginning of March, and this will be undertaken by phase.

“It will be a phased reopening as well, with the understanding that staff working at school and their teachers would have received their doses of the vaccine, and have some level of protection,” Dr Gedeon said.

Meanwhile, organisations that are offering services to the public such as banks and utility companies are being encouraged to operate as per regular hours in order to avoid a lot of people rushing to them before they close.

All other measures remain in place including curfew at 8pm, early closures of grocery shops and food outlets are allowed to take orders and deliver only.

The amendments to these measures will appear in a revised public health order that will come out in the coming days.

In these past couple of days the country has observed a peak in Covid-19 cases on February 4, with 147 positives, and another smaller, yet alarming peak on February 8.

As of yesterday, February 11, there were a total of 546 active Covid-19 cases in the country. 510 of these active cases are on Mahé, 20 on Praslin and 16 on La Digue.

Up to yesterday, Seychelles records a cumulative total of 1,768 Covid-19 cases since March last year.

As for the vaccination campaign, data from February 10 shows that 54% of the target population, a sum of 37,726 people, had taken their first dose and 15% (10,335 people) have already received both doses and are fully vaccinated. The statistics were released on Wednesday February 10.

Meanwhile, by the time of going to press last night the Covid-19 cases update had not been released.

Also present during the press conference yesterday was Dr Danny Louange, chief executive of the Health Care Agency.