Seychelles bids to reach COVID 'herd immunity' by mid-March - The Associated Press

VICTORIA, Seychelles (AP) — The Indian Ocean island nation of Seychelles had one of the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine rollouts, and this month it aims to again break ground by reaching so-called “herd immunity.”.

The country depends heavily on tourism, and when COVID-19 vaccinations in Seychelles began in January, some workers in the tourism industry were among the first to receive them, along with health workers and the president himself.

Its vaccination drive started 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 government of Seychelles, which has a significant population of Indian descent, said it purchased an additional 40,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to have enough to inoculate 70,000 people.

“We have a lot of good friends that love us,” Vanessa Lesperance, a medical officer in the Indian Ocean island nation, told the AP last month.

Sanjeev Pugazhendi with the government’s health ministry, said the “new normal” in Seychelles will still include mask-wearing, hand-washing and social distancing at gatherings, which “I think are here to stay.”.

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 moment we started giving out the vaccines to leaders, religious leaders and health workers, that started to subside,” said Pugazhendi, the doctor with the health ministry

When they spoke with the AP last month, Pugazhendi and Lesperance said neither had a vacation since the pandemic had started, with Seychelles’ tropical setting almost always in view