On the 1st of April, Mauritius entered a rather ambiguous phase of this second lockdown. How are expats coping with this? And what are their thoughts?
In the capital, commerce and traffic have resumed, public transport is filling up and shopping centers are coming back to life. However, we cannot yet speak of deconfinement. Except for work, one can only go out on supermarket days to get to them or to the pharmacy. The beaches remain closed, you can not do outdoor sports, no hiking.
At the same time, the cases of COVID-19 keep increasing and the red zones are multiplying. The policy of the Mauritian government could not be more different than during the first lockdown. Moreover, as the authorities have explained, the Mauritian economy will not survive a second strict three-month lockdown. This explains the pressure to resume economic activities despite the presence of cases in the local community.
For Julia, who has been living with her family in Mauritius for three years now, this confinement is the straw that breaks the camel's back. “We are dreaming of French-style confinement, within two or three months after three years, it is not possible to stay this way, this confinement will have finished deciding us to return home. Depriving children of going outside for several months is not possible, ”laments Julia. And she's not the only one who wants to leave for these reasons, she says.
For Rom, it is especially the children that he worries about. The latter is a teacher in a French high school on the island. The closure of schools is quite simply a disaster. At the start of the school year last September, we picked up the majority of young people with a teaspoon, this year, I really don't know how it will turn out. ” For the latter, the lack of social relations at this age is a real problem. "Now is the time to develop your own relationships and young people are addicted to their phones and only do and can do this all day."
Others are more accommodating. “You have to understand that the case of Mauritius is special. The island is very small, its population is aging and the rate of comorbidities is very high. At the same time, we have to be careful of the economy, which is also fragile. You can't compare Mauritius to a country like France or the UK, ”argues Lou, an Italian expat in Mauritius for 10 years.
