Mauritius reaches vaccination target ahead of 'full reopening' in October

The immunity threshold, which was calculated to be 60% of adults, was passed on Monday (30 August).

From Wednesday (1 September), vaccinated travellers will be required to spend just seven days in one of the country’s 14 ’resort bubbles’, down from 14 days.

From 1 October, visitors will be free to visit the Indian Ocean island without restrictions, provided they submit a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours before arrival.

Nilen Vencadasmy, chairman of the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA), said the milestone is a "fantastic achievement by society and government".

"Mauritius’ vaccination programme has been fundamental to allowing the country to reopen to international travel, to get tourism up and running again," he added.

"The herd immunity milestone means that we can proceed to the final stage of our border reopening, when we will remove all quarantine restrictions for travellers, whilst continuing to put public health first – our guiding principle from the very start."

Air Mauritius will resume services to Heathrow in October as British Airways (BA) continues to offer three direct flights from Gatwick each week.