Why COVID cases in world s most immunized nation are rising despite vaccine push
Antony Sguazzin and Jason Gale, Bloomberg News Seychelles , Bloomberg News
For epidemiologists, the past year and a half has been a voyage of discovery. Recently their journey aboard SARS-CoV-2 took an unexpected turn toward Seychelles, a palm-fringed archipelago in the Indian Ocean with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants. A country that few could pinpoint on a map suddenly became internet-famous as the most vaccinated nation on Earth, with 64 per cent of the population having received the requisite two shots. Yet to the surprise of virologistsâand the dismay of the government, which had been counting on the immunization drive to reopen the tourism-dependent economyâthe infection count has been ticking up. As of May 13 a third of active casesâabout 900 in allâwere among residents whoâd been fully vaccinated.
More than a year after Covid-19 touched off the worst pandemic in more than a century, scientists have yet to determine its origins. The closest related viruses to SARS-CoV-2 were found in bats over 1,000 miles from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the disease erupted in late 2019. Initially, cases were tied to a fresh food market and possibly the wildlife sold there. An investigation in early 2021 has highlighted the possibility that they acted as a vector, transferring the virus from b