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that is of a greater cause for concern. According to the Mauritius NCD Survey 2015 Report (Magliano
et al. 2015, p. 5&6), we have:
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The Mauritian Action Plan
Total Lockdown with Travel bans and Public Closures (for 3 weeks)
- Mauritian Airspace needs to be completed shutdown with no travel in or out
- The Port should be closed likewise
- Designated major supermarkets, pharmacies, filling stations and bakeries are to remain
open but they must not allow members of the public to access their premises
- The supermarkets, pharmacies, cooking gas companies and bakeries must set up home
delivery systems so that people do not need to move
- Online payment to their bank account should be favoured. If not, payment by card upon
delivery is to be favoured as cash is a big means of spreading the virus
- Free food & amenities packs distribution to the poor by government
- Filling stations will service only designated vehicles like government vehicles, delivery
vehicles, ambulances, police vehicles…etc.
- All other buildings and offices like shops, malls, business companies, schools,
government institutions…etc. should be closed
- Work and study from home should be encouraged wherever possible
- Strict curfew and quarantine of whole of Mauritius is to be observed. No movement of
people to be tolerated with possibility of heavy fines and prison terms for contraveners
- Several Police divisions and the Special Mobile Force (SMF) must be deployed to place
roadblocks for maintaining ban on individual movement and maintain law and order
- Each village can use its community centre, area health centre or mediclinic as centre to
coordinate activities like patient testing, food & amenities distribution to the poor and
transport of patients, with at least 2 doctors and nurses working there
- Infected people should be redirected to nearest quarantine centre
- Each constituency must have a Coordination Cell with a hotline for managing activities
and monitoring the situation in the village community centres, area health centres
and/or mediclinics
- A Central Command Centre for managing the Coordination Cells to be set up by PMO
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- Transportation for police/military forces, medical personnel, temporary ground
personnel and patients + for mass testing, mass distribution of food & amenities and
medical emergencies
- Hotlines for each Coordinating Cell and Central Command Centre
Man Power
- According to the HEALTH STATISTICS REPORT 2018 for Mauritius and Rodrigues (Health
Statistics Unit 2019, p. i), we have 3210 doctors (public and private) and 4400 nursing
officers (public and private), which is not enough
- Call upon healthy people to volunteer as temporary ground personnel, helping both
medical and law & order personnel and in food distribution. Payment can also be offered
for enlistment (medical students, pre-reg doctors, private security guards...etc.)
- Government officers and Mauritius Telecom employees can operate the hotlines
- People can be trained in doing basic virus testing and law enforcement
Sequence of Events
Before Lockdown
- Give a few days to people to buy stuffs
- Bring in all medical equipment and personnel, foodstuffs, anti-bacterial solutions we can
get by air
During Lockdown
- Police and SMF are to maintain law and order
- 1st testing of each and every person in Mauritius the same day
- Free food and amenities pack distribution to all poor families 2 times/week for 3 weeks
- 1 person per family comes out to fetch the food packs to minimise contamination
- Do anti-bacterial spraying on the food pack and then bring them inside the house
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- If someone becomes sick, phone Coordinating Cell hotline and ask for emergency
transport by Government authorities
- Infected people to be put in makeshift quarantine facilities and/or hotels
- 2nd testing to be carried out after 1.5 to 2 weeks to check if there are any changes in
number of cases
- 3rd testing to be done in 3rd week to ascertain complete disappearance of virus before
lifting lockdown and re-opening airspace and port
After Lockdown
- Mandatory quarantine procedures of all who enter Mauritius via airport and port to
prevent any new outbreak from outsiders
Final Note
Half-baked measures are simply not going to work. The reaction rate of the government has been
very slow and we have already lost a lot of ground to the invisible enemy. The Government must go
in hard and go in RIGHT NOW!
May God help us all and our beloved country Mauritius!
Dr Visham Ramsurrun
BSc., Ph.D, Post-Doc, PGCert HE, HCNA, CCNA, FHEA, MIEEE
Senior Lecturer in Computer Science & Researcher
Middlesex University Mauritius
22/03/2020
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