seychelles which has vaccinated more of its population against covid19 than any other country saw active cases more than double in the week to may 7 raising concerns that inoculation is not helping turn the tide in some placesthe world health organization said vaccine failure couldnt be determined without a detailed assessment and that it was working on evaluating the situationkate obrien director of the the whos department of immunization vaccines and biologicals told a briefing on monday that the body was in direct communication with seychelles and that a detailed assessment was needed looking at factors like strains of the virus and the severity of casesthe health ministry of the archipelago off of africas east coast said monday that the number of active cases had more than doubled since last week to 2486 people and 37 of those have received two vaccine doses cases are also surging in the maldives another indian ocean island nation thats a popular tourism destinationin seychelles sinopharm shots were issued to 57 of those who were fully inoculated and the rest with covishield a vaccine made in india under a license from astrazeneca as of may 8 no one who had contracted covid while being vaccinated had died seychelles news agency reported citing the minister for foreign affairs and tourismthe seychelles a group of palmfringed tropical islands last week reimposed curbs including closing schools canceling sports events and banning mingling of householdsthe country had raced to vaccinate its population of just under 100000 first with a donation of doses from chinas sinopharm and then with a gift of covishield so it could reopen to the tourists who are the lifeblood of its economydaniel lucey clinical professor of medicine at dartmouth geisel school of medicine said in a blog last week that data on genetic sequencing are not yet available for infections in seychelles in aprilstill the b1351 variant first identified in south africa late last year was found in the seychelles in february he said astrazenecas vaccine appeared to be less effective against that variant in a study and south africa halted plans to use those injectionsa comparison between sinopharm covishield and unvaccinated people who caught the coronavirus could be done using genetic sequencing and data on the severity of their infections lucey saidcases in the maldives which has seen a surge in visits from affluent indians have also shot up the country has the most new cases per 100000 people in the past five seven and 14 days active cases jumped from 4978 to 9423 on may 9for more on the indian tourist influx into the maldives click hereas of may 8 over 300000 people in the maldives had received at least one dose of a vaccine and 35 of the population had received two according to the health protection agency the country has been using sinopharm and covishieldpositive test results in greater male the area in and around the capital of the maldives are about 60 of the total as of