Tourism - Seychelles tightens its precautionary measures following surge in Covid-19 cases in Europe

It was the Minister for Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports & Marine, Didier Dogley, who made the statement after attending a meeting by the high level committee for the integrated management system for the re-opening of Seychelles to commercial flights during which the subject was discussed.

The meeting, held at the Seychelles Trading Company’s (STC) conference room yesterday morning, was chaired by President Danny Faure.

Minister Dogley explained that the country was planning to open its borders to all European countries by September 1, 2020 but the surge in Covid-19 has made the country more cautious about doing so.

He further said that the committee has taken the decision to award the special consideration arrangement for visitors from a special list of countries that make significant contribution to our country’s economy, albeit they are being affected by the virus. These countries are Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, the UK, France and the United Arab Emirates, where there has been a surge in virus cases recently.

Under the special consideration taken by the high level committee, the visitors from those countries will be required to stay for five days in quarantine in one of twenty-four hotels, certified at the moment, as transit tourism places in the country, where they will not be allowed to roam around for four days unless free from the virus after testing done on them on the fifth day.

Minister Dogley said that following testing for Covid-19 on the fifth day of their stay, those who are sick will be transferred to the isolation centre while those with signs of the virus maybe quarantined in their hotel rooms.

For the moment, visitors coming to Seychelles have to do their PCR test 72 hours before being authorised to enter the country through the newly introduced Seychelles’ online electronic Health Travel Authorisation system (HTA).

He stated that if the Covid-19 situation in those countries listed under the special consideration gets worse to an unprecedented level, they will be removed from the list of countries where their visitors can come to Seychelles.

He said that visitors have to show that they are Covid-19 negative before they will be allowed through the HTA to enter Seychelles.

He noted that the new special consideration for visitors is to protect the country and its citizens against the virus.

Furthermore, Minister Dogley said that since the re-opening of the airport on August 1, 2020 for commercial flights, a total of 2700 visitors, as from September 7, 2020, have disembarked in Seychelles.

He noted that apart from the five imported Covid-19 cases, which the country have contained, the programme for the re-opening of Seychelles to the outside world has generally gone very well.

The committee discussed on several presentations from health, the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB), the sub high level committee task force, the Seychelles Hotel and Tourism Association (SHTA) and on the online electronic Health Travel Authorisation system, including on the economy and on charter flights from Israel in October that had to be cancelled due to surge in Covid-19 in that country, among others.

He noted that 4000 rooms, out of 6000 room applications, have been certified against Covid-19 and are available for use, noting that most restaurants and cafeterias have been certified for use.

Minister Dogley noted that the committee spent a great amount of time discussing the behaviour of people with regard mostly to social distancing in relation to political gathering and other events going on, especially at night in certain homes and venues, where he said the health guidelines are not being respected.

He called on everyone to respect the health guidelines so as to protect one another against the virus and in the process sparing us from going back into lockdown.

 Patrick Joubert