PORT LOUIS: Mauritius on Wednesday declared wary victory in its first battle with coronavirus, saying it had “zero” active patients and had not documented a single new case in 17 days.

The Indian Ocean island nation initially surged ahead of other eastern African countries in terms of caseload, hitting a peak of 332 just shy of six weeks into its outbreak. Ten people died.

It imposed one of the first and strictest lockdowns in Africa, going so far as to initially shut supermarkets for 10 days, a measure that has been extended until June 1.

“Today we are at 17 days without a new case. Mauritius now has zero active cases,” Health Minister Kailesh Jagutpal said in an address on national television.

“We have won the battle thanks to the cooperation of the public, who understood that the government needed to take extreme measures, including complete confinement, and the closure of supermarkets and our borders. But we have not yet won the war. Let’s remain vigilant.” From May 15, a limited selection of essential stores such as bakeries, butcheries and fishmongers will be allowed to re-open, but most businesses, bars, shopping centres and markets will stay shut.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2020