Active cases more than double in the week to May 7, was seen in Seychelles, which has vaccinated more of its population against Covid-19 than any other country, growing anxieties that vaccination is not helping turn the tide in some places.
According to the World Health Organization, vaccine failure couldn’t be learned without a detailed evaluation and that it was working on assessing the situation.
Director of the WHO’s department of immunization, vaccines and biologicals, Kate O’Brien, told in an announcement on Monday that the body was in direct contact with Seychelles and that a complete evaluation was wanted regarding factors like forces of the virus and the severity of cases.
On Monday, the Health Ministry of the archipelago off of Africa’s east coast said that the number of existing cases had more than doubled since last week to 2,486 people, and 37% of those have taken two vaccine doses. Cases are also growing in the Maldives, another Indian Ocean island nation that’s a popular tourism destination.
In Seychelles, Sinopharm shots were issued to 57% of those who were fully vaccinated and the rest with Covishield, a vaccine made in India under a license from AstraZeneca Plc. Seychelles News Agency reported, citing the minister for foreign affairs and tourism, as of May 8 no one who had contracted Covid while being vaccinated had died.
A group of palm-fringed tropical islands, Seychelles, last week re-imposed restraints including closing schools, cancelling sports events and banning mingling of households.
The country had rushed to vaccinate its population of just under 100,000, first with a contribution of doses from China’s Sinopharm and then with a gift of Covishield, so it could reopen to the tourists who are the lifeblood of its economy.
Clinical professor of medicine at Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, Daniel Lucey, said in a blog last week that information on genetic sequencing is not still available for infections in Seychelles in April.
However, the B.1.351 variant, first recognised in South Africa late last year, was found in Seychelles in February, he said. AstraZeneca’s vaccine seemed to be less effective against that variant in a study, and South Africa stopped plans to use those injections.
Lucey said that a comparison between Sinopharm, Covishield and unvaccinated people who caught the coronavirus could be done using genetic sequencing and data on the austerity of their infections.
The number of cases in the Maldives has seen a wave in visits from prosperous Indians have also shot up. The country has the newest cases per 100,000 people in the past five, seven and 14 days. Active cases rose from 4,978 to 9,423 on May 9.
According to the Health Protection Agency, as of May 8, over 300,000 people in the Maldives had taken at least one dose of a vaccine and 35% of the population had received two. The country has been using Sinopharm and Covishield.
In the area in and around the capital of the Maldives, positive test results in Greater Male, are about 60% of the total. As of May 7 the government closed gyms and cinemas and forced a curfew from 9 p.m. until 4 a.m, the agency said.
The govt is also now asking that arrivals to the islands, including those who have been vaccinated, have a negative Covid-19 test administered four days before their departure.
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