AMS Private Hospital in Vilanculos

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus.

Most people who fall sick with COVID-19 will experience mild to moderate symptoms and recover without special treatment.

2020 saw the COVID-19 global pandemic which we are still experiencing. While travel restrictions are easing, we are still ensuring that we are exercising caution in order to provide a safe and comfortable environment for our guests.

Guests are screened on arrival into Mozambique for symptoms at Vilanculos Airport Arrivals. During their stay at Santorini, management will conduct regular non- intrusive temperature checks and we strongly encourage all guests to please notify our team should they display any Covid-19 symptoms. Should any guest display any Covid-19 symptoms while staying at Santorini, they will immediately be accommodated in an allocated isolation suite until a Covid-19 test has been conducted and the results received back.

Guest rooms including all amenities and accessories are deep cleaned and sanitized prior to arrival according to strict guidelines. A UV sanitation machine is used to clean soft furnishing in the rooms and aircon filters are washed with hot water. Going forward we will allow our guests to decide on their level of interactions with the team for their own wellbeing. This includes an option to not have a housekeeping service during their stay.

We are conducting mandatory staff hygiene checks and have placed hand sanitizer (containing 71.7% alcohol) in multiple locations around the villa for guest and staff use. Staff are also provided with multiple face masks so that masks can be washed daily.

Unfortunately we are still at a stage where all travellers are required to present a negative PCR COVID test for entry and departure into Mozambique.  A printed medical certificate with a negative PCR test no older than 72 hours before the date of travel is required for entry back into South Africa from Mozambique via air travel.

All-Around Medical Solutions Limitada (AMS) is a private hospital in Vilanculos which can now assist visitors with COVID PCR Tests required for onward travel out of Mozambique.

The AMS private hospital opened in Vilanculos 5 years ago in March 2016. The concept of the health center emerged from an ongoing demand for quality services by the fast growing community and has been as asset to our part of the country. They offer general consultations, day to day care, emergency and advanced life support, 24 hour inpatient emergency admission, laboratory analysis, pharmacy, air ambulance medical evacuation and more.

In the face of the pandemic and regulations of world travel requiring a PCR test 72 hours prior to travel we were able to turn to our trusted service provider AMS to work on the solution that all travel establishments in our area faced. They first set up a testing facility and sent the samples to Maputo for processing at the laboratory. This led to longer turner around time and caused challenges for our guests onward travel requirements on long haul flights.

Hearing our concerns they built a laboratory on the premises in March 2021. The PCR laboratory is able to process Covid-19 samples on their premises. The turnaround in receiving the test results back have now been reduced are 24 to 48 hours.

As an added service for the convenience of our guests, the Hospital is able to send a hospital nurse to Santorini and the tests can be conducted in the privacy of our clients’ suites. Testing is done between 8am and 12pm Monday to Saturday and the Villa managers will book the Covid tests on behalf of our guests.

The test results are emailed to clients/villa office once processed and the results can be printed for return flight requirements.