Seychelles Reintroduce Restriction for Casinos Operators, Despite 85% Vaccination

The authorities of Seychelles have introduced new restrictions for the early closure of casinos, shops, and bars. In addition, a ban on commemoration gatherings shows, groups sporting activities, and conferences; nonessential workers are encouraged to work from home, despite 85 per cent of the population being vaccinated.

The restriction also spells across the educational institutions for three weeks, while authorities had directed state and private schools and the post-secondary institution to close. However, child minding services and daycare remain open as the health authority reintroduces societal restrictions to curb an increase in COVID-19 transmission. The 11 pm curfew remains in force; Public Health Commissioner Jude Gedeon announced the new measures in a press conference on Tuesday following a meeting of the COVID-19 Platinum Committee on Monday. Since the last update from the Ministry of Health, 497 new COVID-19 cases were recorded over three days. These are samples collected on April 29 and 30 and May 1. This brings the cumulative number of confirmed cases to 6,373 more than 5,000 people,-5,227-have recovered from the virus, and 28 deaths were recorded. There are currently 1,068 cases numbers among which 84% are Seychellois, and 16% are foreigners.

Some 65% of the active case are unvaccinated or have received only one dose, while the remaining have taken both doses.

“These are an upward trend, we do not know how long it will last, but this will depend on what measures are taken and how the new measures are respected,” explained Gedeon.

The new measures are taken during the platinum Committee meetings chaired by the head of state President Wavel Ramkalawan will, be reviewed closer to May 24 and, depending on the situation from now till then, will be lifted or maintained. The minister of Health, who was also at the press conference, said that increased daily the infection leads to an increase in hospital admission. As a result, the family Hospital at Perseverance-the main COVID-19 treatment centre, is running its capacity.

“This means the amount of bed we have to expand it is for this reason that we are looking at another possibility. For patients at the Anse Royale hospital, obviously, when we have a pandemic like this, and we have seen the number of health workers who are off because they have got the virus or contact so this is always a pressure on human resources,” – explained Peggy Vidot.

Further, for the time, we are assuring the public that with our current capacity, we can continue our services. The minister said that as the evolution of the pandemic is unknown, the ministry will remain focus on how to adapt, redeploy and cope with the virus and continue to deliver the service. The health professionals call for the population support and corporations as wearing masks, sensitization, physical distancing, and abiding by the restrictions in force will help stop community transmission.

To date, over 59,600 people have received both doses of vaccines representing 85 per cent of the targeted population. However, these new restrictions by the authorities for casino business are a massive blow for land-based casino operators. That has been hit badly due to the previous national lockdown. Many are still counting losses and trying to recuperate from the time they are out of business, and the majority depends on tourists.

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