How Mauritius’ Unique Political Culture Helped It Beat COVID-19

EVERY DAY at 6pm, one of the co-author’s 10-year-old son would ask: “Mama, how many new cases today?”.  For the last 27 days, the reply has been “none” (apart from two recently imported cases in quarantine).

Like every family in Mauritius, we have kept a close eye on the pandemic. We hoped that our nation would beat the deadly coronavirus. On 11 May, we rejoiced. All 322 people with confirmed cases had recovered. Mauritius was free of COVID-19.

This was even more of a relief given the dire warnings just three months before. The World Health Organisation (WHO) had estimated that Mauritius had the highest risk of exposure in Africa and would have the second highest rate of infections. Its model projected nearly 90,000 moderate, severe or critical cases and over 800 deaths on the island.

In the end, however, Mauritius recorded just 332 cases and ten deaths.