Seychelles waters have been closed to cruise ships with immediate effect. Announcing the decision, Didier Dogley, Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports & Marine said "Following our discussion and based on the global situation where we have seen the number of people infected and also its spread, the way it is being transmitted all over the world, especially in Europe, where most of our clients come from, we have decided with immediate effect to annul all activities related to cruise ships in Seychelles’ waters.”

Jude Gedeon from Seychelles Health authority added, “The route of the cruise ship during the last 14 days is not always clear. What contacts have they made in the ports they’ve gone through? And the one coming tomorrow has gone through several ports which has had transmissions of the coronavirus so with abundance of caution we have decided that it is not a good idea to take the risk and let passengers disembark".

“In principle when you have a suspected case in a crowd going into its thousands, management to take care of up to 3,000 people, we do not have the resources to do that. Even if we say we will isolate them in their boat, if someone falls sick on board whose conditions worsens and as per WHO’s regulations, the person must be bought to land for treatment. Our facilities do not allow us to take large numbers”.

The survey vessel Geo Resolution has visited Mahe, with Mahe Shipping Company acting as ship's agents.  Geo Resolution is a specialist survey vessel, acquired by EGS in 2014. Prior to that the 68m long and 13m wide vessel was engaged as a US and later New Zealand Navy hydrographic survey vessel.

Geo Resolution has completed a survey for a second submarine cable, collecting data to be analysed in connection with the project. The survey is required to determine the precise location for the placement of the cable.

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Seychelles Nation 03.03.2020