Seychelles Government thanks Sri Lanka for accepting 35 nationals for medical treatment

Seychelles Government has thanked Sri Lanka for accepting 35 of its nationals for urgent medical treatment in Colombo.

In a statement the High Commission of Seychelles said on behalf of the Government of Seychelles: “We wish to place on record our gratitude to the Government of Sri Lanka, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Health, for enabling the visit of a group of 35 citizens of Seychelles, 24 of whom require urgent medical care, of which 11 critical patients are being accompanied by their relatives, for coronary angiography and angioplasty, tetralogy fallout corrective surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, retinal detachment repair and many other high end surgery and interventions.”

The group arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday on a special Air Seychelles flight. This turnaround flight took back 14 Seychelles nationals who found themselves stranded in Sri Lanka due to the current situation and then onto Chennai to evacuate more Seychellois. The patients have fulfilled all precautionary measures including the PCR tests in Seychelles and were cleared for foreign travel. On arrival, they were transferred to a hotel in Wadduwa for paid quarantine and were under the watchful eyes of the Sri Lankan Army and Ministry of Health, thereby complying fully with the quarantine protocol of the Government of Sri Lanka.

The Hemas Hospital medical team was present at the quarantine centre to receive the patients, assess their health condition and to decide on the care plan while in quarantine. The Hemas Laboratory team extracted the PCR samples from all 35 citizens of Seychelles and was sent for immediate testing. All tests were negative.

On completion of the quarantine period and clearance obtained after a second round of PCR testing for COVID-19, they will be admitted to Hemas Hospitals in Thalawathugoda and Wattala to continue their treatment and procedures.

The Seychelles side further wished to state that there has been no active COVID-19 cases in Seychelles since 7 May after the last of 11 positive patients was discharged from its quarantine centre. It is also to be noted that Seychelles is testing for seven gene targets with RSPCR, making the test accurate in terms of specificity and sensitivity.

Seychelles implemented very strict measures to contain and control the spread of the virus and its international airport is only to be reopened on 1 June. The last case (11th) was detected on 6 April and no deaths have been recorded which gives the country a clean COVID-19 bill.

“Sri Lanka has been a preferred destination for medical tourism among the Seychelles nationals over the last few years and we wish to thank Hemas Hospitals for their untiring effort in facilitating the visit of this group of patients and wish to state that this travel is testament to the trust and credibility on the health system of Sri Lanka.

“This also highlights the confidence Seychelles has in Sri Lanka as a safe destination to send their non-COVID patients for treatment even during a pandemic. We salute the armed forces and the medical teams in Sri Lanka led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for managing the pandemic very well that has given us the confidence to select Sri Lanka for medical treatment for foreign patients needing urgent critical care.” This is yet another milestone in promoting the longstanding bilateral relationship between the two nations.

(Source: Daily FT)