2nd seafarer from Spanish fishing fleet in Seychelles admitted to COVID isolation centre
General |Author: Joanna Nicette Edited by: Betymie Bonnelame | June 30, 2020, Tuesday @ 18:48| 4544 views
68 of the seafarers are quarantined on board several vessels in a quarantine zone at the harbour. (File photo: Rassin Vannier, Seychelles News Agency)
(Seychelles News Agency) - A second seafarer from a Spanish fishing fleet operating in the Seychelles' waters who tested positive for COVID-19 has been admitted to the isolation centre at Perseverance, a top health official said on Tuesday.
The chief executive of the Health Care Agency, Danny Louange, told a press conference that the second seafarer was admitted on Monday.
"We were called by their doctor because he had a fever. We admitted him for us to do further investigation. Currently, he has no fever, he is asymptomatic. So we have only two patients in our isolation centre," he said.
Louange said currently Seychelles has 70 active cases and all of them are seafarers who arrived in the island nation on June 23. They are all quarantined on board several vessels in a quarantine zone at the harbour.
"The first seafarer was admitted initially when we started testing and we kept him in isolation because he had a fever but does not have any other symptoms," he added.
As for people in quarantine, Louange said that there are 96 people at the Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay facility and 22 at the new South East Island quarantine centre.
Those in quarantine are Seychellois citizens who were stranded abroad and who returned to the country through various repatriation flights.
As per the established guidelines of the Department of Health, all returning citizens, as well as foreigners coming to Seychelles, have to go into quarantine in one of the centres. However, a family of three was allowed to go into home quarantine.
"This family includes a child, whom according to our rules in place would be difficult to administer to in quarantine, so they were allowed to go into home quarantine. Before they went, our team visited their home to see if it met the requirements and was satisfied that it does," he said.
Louange gave the reassurance that the local staff at the isolation centre is well trained and able to manage the current situation.
Seychelles, a group of 115 islands in the western Indian Ocean, has two main isolation facilities and access to other life-sustaining equipment such as ventilators at the Intensive Care Unit of the Seychelles Hospital.
He said that the shipping line's management through its local agents is cooperating closely with the Department of Health in the management of the 70 cases.