Government proposes set of measures to support households and communities

GIS – 31 March, 2020: Government has put forward a set of measures to support households and communities, following the extension of the curfew order to 15 April 2020, and the reopening of supermarkets and shops on 02 April 2020 under strict sanitary conditions.

The measures were made public this morning during the daily press briefing of the National Communication Committee on Covid-19, at the Treasury Building in Port Louis, in presence of the Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Dr Renganaden Padayachy, the Minister of Tourism, Mr Joe Lesjongard, the Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Kailesh Jagutpal, and the spokesperson of the Committee, Dr Zouberr Joomaye.

Grocery Shopping

With regard to grocery shopping, Minister Lesjongard stated that access will be given in alphabetical order of family name to every Mauritian household twice per week. They are as follows: Monday and Thursday – A to F, Tuesday and Friday – G to N, Wednesday and Saturday – O to Z. The supermarkets and shops will be opened from Monday to Saturday from 09 00 hrs to 17 00hrs.

Other important details for consumers are:

·          Mauritians to be in possession of their National Identity Card and foreigners to present either their passport, residence permit or work permit

      ·       Only one person per family will be allowed

       ·      Every consumer has the obligation to wear a mask

       ·    Sanitary control at the entry and those with a temperature above 37.5⁰C will be taken in charge by the Ministry of Health and  Wellness

       ·     Shopping will be restricted to 30 minutes onlyand bring their own bags

       ·    Access limited to only three per persons for essential products e.g flour, rice, oil, milk, tissue papers

Supermarkets and shops will be allowed to operate only if they strictly put in place the sanitary measures as recommended by the authorities, including floor markings both inside and outside to avoid gatherings, cashiers to wear mask and gloves, and limiting the number of persons according to the surface area. Citizens are called upon to act responsibly, to stop panic buying and stockpiling as there is sufficient stock of essential products.

Support to informal workers and communities

Government is aware that Covid-19 is having huge economic impacts, which are felt across all segments of society and all sectors of the economy, stated Minister Padayachy. He spoke of the vulnerability of those who work in the informal sector and listed out the measures to help those people by providing a financial support of 50% of the Minimum Wage, that is, Rs 5 100 to every self-earned person. Informal workers are called upon to register online on the MRA website or to call on the hotline 2076000.

The Finance Minister listed out other measures, namely, Special Relief amount by the Bank of Mauritius (BOM) for enterprises with total net profit of less than Rs50 million; Development Bank of Mauritius (DBM) to provide loan of Rs 1 million  to enterprises with a total net profit up to Rs 10 million; small companies which have to pay rents to private firms can benefit from a loan under the DBM’s  Revolutionary Credit Fund and consequently will not have to pay interests till December 2020; and exemption of municipal fees for some 13 000 market stallholders.

143 Covid-19 cases registered

Fifteen new cases of the coronavirus have been detectedsince yesterday and that the country now counts 143 cases, including three deaths, announced the spokesperson of the Committee, Dr Joomaye. He stressed on the importance for everyone to comply with the stringent confinement measures so as to curb the spread of the virus in the country.

For his part, Minister Jagutpal recalled that Government has taken all the necessary precautionary measures to contain the virus. He further deplored that despite the curfew order, irresponsible citizens are still going out and urged the population to abide at all times to the national confinement measures to avoid an exponential increase of the virus in the country.