The Prime Minister (PM), Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, chaired, today, a meeting of the National Task Force in the context of the Maha Shivratree 2022 festival, scheduled for 01 March this year, during which he appealed to the understanding and collaboration of socio-cultural associations to help avoid mass gatherings at Grand Bassin. The meeting was held at the Sir Harilal Vaghjee Memorial Hall, in Port-Louis.

The meeting enabled Ministers and various representatives from Government institutions and socio-cultural associations to discuss and share proposals regarding the arrangements being made for the Maha Shivratree festival, despite strict sanitary and restrictive measures in force in a bid to stop the spread of COVID-19 locally.

Addressing those present at the meeting, Prime Minister Jugnauth recalled that the series of restrictive measures announced in November 2021 so as to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country have been extended until the end of March 2022. He highlighted that Government stands guided by the advice of experts and of international organisations in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The series of restrictions, he stressed, are important in order to protect the health of the population and reduce the risk of contamination.

As such, he voiced out satisfaction regarding the understanding and collaboration of representatives of the Catholic Church and the Mauritius Tamil Temples Federation so that religious events are held in the best possible ways while observing strict sanitary guidelines so as to avoid putting the health of the population at risk.

The Prime Minister therefore expressed the wish for representatives of socio-cultural associations to collaborate in the same manner in organising the Maha Shivratree festival this year. He cautioned that converging in large groups towards Grand Bassin will increase the risk of contracting the COVID-19.  Mr Jugnauth recalled that, last year, socio-cultural associations understood the situation and requested pilgrims to stop converging to Grand Bassin as COVID-19 contamination rate was on the rise.

He further dwelt on the highly contagious Omicron variant and reiterated his appeal to the collaboration of each and every citizen in a bid to stop the spread of COVID-19 locally.

For his part, the Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Kailesh Kumar Singh Jagutpal, who was also present during the meeting, recalled how the country registered a peak in the number of COVID-19 positive cases back in November 2021. He underlined that Government has taken appropriate measures to remedy to this situation and expressed hope that the population continues to abide by all sanitary measures in place.