MAMOUDZOU, Mayotte (AP) — Mayotte’s main tourist office stands nearly empty, a lonely tropical outpost overlooking a people-less port. The Mayotte islands are the poorest corner of the European Union, tucked between Madagascar and the mainland coast of Mozambique in southern Africa. Local authorities feel forgotten and say their difficulties in fighting the virus reflect long-standing inequalities between France’s majority-white mainland and its far-flung multiracial former colonies. The French Foreign Legion delivered the super-freezer needed to store Mayotte’s initial deliveries of 950 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. In the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, virus cases are suddenly spiking to their highest levels since the pandemic began, and demand for ICU beds is more than double supply.

Source: Egypt Independent February 10, 2021 07:52 UTC