COVID-19 pandemic in Mauritius
The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached Mauritius in March 2020. Since the first three cases of COVID-19 were confirmed, the Mauritian authorities have been conducting 'Contact tracing': people who have been in contact with infected patients have been placed under quarantine, including doctors, nurses and police officers. No cases have been reported in Agaléga and St. Brandon. Mauritius scored 100 in the Oxford University COVID-19 government response tracker. No new cases through local transmission has been detected in Mauritius since 26 April 2020, since then, all the new cases which were reported on the  island were imported cases from passengers who were repatriated to Mauritius and were admitted to quarantine centers upon their arrival. On 29 May 2020, the Mauritian government announced the end of lockdown as from 30 May 2020 at 00.00. However, some restrictions was still imposed on certain activities, in public spaces and public gatherings. On 12 June 2020, the Prime Minister announced that the decision was taken to lift all business and activity lockdowns ordered earlier to cope with the COVID-19, as from Monday 15 June 2020. Consequently, beaches, markets, gyms, parks, Village Halls, Community Centres, cinema and other public  places became accessible to the public but the wearing of masks and social distancing will still be compulsory. Schools resumed as from 1 July 2020. As at 12 June 2020, 10% of the population were already tested with a total of 142,889 tests: 32,257 PCR tests and 110,632 Rapid Tests. Background. On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019. The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has  been much lower than that of SARS of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll. Timeline. July to December 2020. In July, 1164 stranded citizens were due to be repatriated, subject to testing negative for COVID-19 prior to boarding the flight. The Prime Minister stated that the school calendar has been reviewed and the resumption of classes will be on 1 July 2020 instead of 1 August 2020 as previously announced. January to December 2021. Mass vaccination commenced on 26 January 2021, initially with 100,000 doses of AstraZeneca's Covishield vaccine donated by  India. Beneficiaries are required to waive all claims for adverse events following immunisation. Mauritius went back in lockdown on 10 March 2021 at 6am local time, initially until 25 March but subsequently extended until 30 April. The first COVID-19 case on Rodrigues was confirmed on 10 October 2021. The first two cases of the Omicron variant were reported on 10 December 2021. Response. Panic buying. Since the outbreak of the virus in various countries around the world, the images of empty shelves of shops in Europe started to create panic among Mauritians. Some people started to buy food and  medical products in excess. Sports. On 6 April 2020, Mauritius became the first country to order the termination of all football leagues in the country for the 2019–2020 season.