Covid-19: Mauritius suspends international flights for a week

Mauritius has suspended all inbound international flights for a week after six local Covid-19 cases were reported.

“The National Covid-19 High Powered Committee met and took the decision to enforce travel restrictions to Mauritius for a period of one week with effect from midnight on March 6, 2021,” said a statement.

International flights remain suspended from 17:00 (local time) on March 6, 2021 until 12pm. (local time) on March 15, 2021.

During this period, Air Mauritius said, passengers will be able to embark on outbound travel from Mauritius but no passenger will be uplifted for inbound travel.

Also, no passenger will be uplifted from Mauritius to Rodrigues. However, passengers will be uplifted for travel from Rodrigues to Mauritius, said the country’s national carrier.

Kailesh Jagutpal, health minister of Mauritius, said this decision has been taken to free up space for people to be placed in quarantine following a contact-tracing process. The suspension of flights will provide the ministry with breathing space as it rolls out vaccination to the population, Bloomberg reported.

The island nation is set to start its vaccination campaign from Monday after vaccinating its healthcare workers and the elderly people.

-waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com