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The Government of Seychelles yesterday expressed its gratitude to the Sri Lankan Government for providing urgent medical attention for 35 citizens of Seychelles upon their arrival to Sri Lanka on May 23.

The group of 35 citizens of Seychelles came to Sri Lanka and 24 of them required urgent medical care, of which 11 critical patients are being accompanied by their relatives, for coronary angiography and angioplasty, tetralogy fallout corrective surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, retinal detachment repair and many other high end surgery and interventions.

The group arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday, May 23, on a special Air Seychelles flight. This turnaround flight took back 14 Seychelles nationals who found themselves stranded in Sri Lanka due to the current situation and then onto Chennai to evacuate more Seychellois.

The patients have fulfilled all precautionary measures including the PCR Tests in Seychelles and were cleared for foreign travel. On arrival, they were transferred to a hotel in Wadduwa for paid quarantine and were under the watchful eyes of Sri Lanka Army and Ministry of Health, thereby complying fully with the quarantine protocol of the Government of Sri Lanka.

The HEMAS Hospital medical team was present at the quarantine center to receive the patients, assess their health condition and to decide on the care plan while in quarantine. The HEMAS Laboratory team extracted the PCR samples from all 35 citizens of Seychelles and was sent for immediate testing. All tests were negative. On completion of the quarantine period and clearance obtained after a second round of PCR testing for Covid 19, they will be admitted to Hemas Hospitals in Thalawathugoda and Wattala to continue their treatment and procedures.

The Seychelles government further wished to state that there has been no active Covid -19 cases in Seychelles since May 07, 2020 after the last of 11 positive patients was discharged from its qrantined centre.

It is also to be noted that Seychelles is testing for seven gene targets with RSPCR, making the test accurate in terms of specificity and sensitivity.

Seychelles implemented very strict measures to contain and control the spread of the virus and its international airport is only to be reopened on June 01,2020.

The last case (11th) was detected on April 06 and no deaths have been recorded which gives the country a clean COVID-19 bill. Sri Lanka has been a preferred destination for medical tourism among the Seychelles nationals over last few years and the Seychelles government thanked Hemas Hospitals for their untiring effort in facilitating the visit of this group of patients and wish to state that this travel is testament to the trust and credibility on the health system of Sri Lanka.

"This also highlights the confidence Seychelles has on Sri Lanka as a safe destination to send their non COVID patients for treatment even during a pandemic," the Seychelles government noted further.

The government of Seychelles further salute the armed forces and the medical teams in Sri Lanka led by His Excellency President Gotabhaya Rajapakse for managing the pandemic very well that has given us the confidence to select Sri Lanka for medical treatment for foreign patients needing urgent critical care.