A new Afrobarometer survey has shown the COVID-19 pandemic’s widespread negative effects on Mauritians’ health and livelihoods.
A staggering 83% believe that “a lot”, “some” and “a little” COVID-19 resources have been lost due to corruption.
This was the reaction to the question: “Considering all of the funds and resources that were available to the government for combating and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, how much do you think was lost or stolen due to corruption?”
Only 3% think that none of these resources have been embezzled.
While trust in the government’s ability to ensure vaccine safety is relatively weak, more than half of Mauritians (52%) describe the government’s overall performance in managing the response to the COVID-19 pandemic as “fairly” or “very” good, while 46% say it has done a poor job (Figure 7).
On specific aspects of the COVID-19 response, a slim majority (51%) say they are “fairly satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the government’s efforts to provide assistance to vulnerable households.
Close to half of citizens expressed satisfaction with the government’s efforts to ensure that health facilities are adequately resourced to deal with the pandemic (47%) and to ensure that disruptions of children’s education are held to a minimum (46%).
An overwhelming majority of citizens (95%) report having been vaccinated against COVID-19 despite low levels of trust in the government’s ability to ensure vaccine safety.
Mauritians are divided (52% yes, 43% no) when it comes to whether the government is prepared to deal with future public emergencies and whether it should invest in preparations for such crises even at the cost of other health services.
Rural residents are significantly more likely than urbanites to report losing an income source (32% vs. 21%) and becoming ill with or testing positive for COVID-19 (58% vs. 45%).
Loss of an income source is more common among poorer citizens (46% of those experiencing moderate/high lived poverty, compared to 19% of the wealthy).
Some 62% approve the use of security forces to enforce public health mandates during an emergency like the pandemic, and 45% would accept postponing elections.
But most (79%) disapprove of censoring media reporting during a public health emergency.
Source: afrobarometer.org
COVID-19: Two additional deaths
Two COVID-19 patients died during the week-end and four people were tested positive and admitted at the ENT hospital. Among them, a four-month-old baby with heart complications.