President Herminie leaves hospital, to resume duties Oct 28

Patrick Herminie spent a week in a hospital bed in Victoria, and the whole of Seychelles watched. Admitted on 21 October 2026 with what his wife called “une mauvaise grippe”, a bad flu, the 63-year-old president is expected back at the helm of the country on Wednesday 28 October 2026, closing a chapter that began with an illness that seemed minor but carried real weight for the archipelago.

The stay at the hospital in Victoria ended earlier this week. Since then, Herminie has been convalescing at home, surrounded by his family and close ones, according to the information available. The image of a president recovering among his loved ones, rather than at his desk, shaped the days leading up to his return. The question on many minds in Victoria and beyond was simple: when would he be back?

The answer came with the announcement that he would resume his duties this Wednesday. But the flu cost him something tangible. His participation in the Russia-Africa summit, scheduled for 28 and 29 October 2026 in Moscow, had to be abandoned. That gathering matters to many countries in the region, and the president’s absence from it is one of the concrete consequences of a week spent in a hospital ward rather than in diplomatic corridors.

Meanwhile, the tone from the presidential camp was one of gratitude rather than alarm. “Dans sa déclaration de dimanche, le président Herminie a exprimé sa gratitude aux médecins, infirmières, professionnels de la santé et à tout le personnel de l’hôpital des Seychelles pour leur dévouement, leur professionnalisme et les soins qu’il a reçus pendant son séjour,” Seychelles News Agency reported. “Le président a également remercié le peuple seychellois pour ses pensées, ses prières et ses marques de soutien durant sa maladie.”

Those words put the caregivers of the Seychelles hospital at the centre of the story. For the doctors, nurses and health professionals who looked after the president during his stay, the public acknowledgment was direct and personal. And for Seychellois citizens, whose thoughts, prayers and messages of support were also singled out, the episode became a moment of collective concern for a leader whose illness, however ordinary on paper, kept the country watching.

The chronology is worth restating clearly. Herminie was admitted on 21 October 2026. His wife spoke publicly of a bad flu. The hospital stay wrapped up at the start of the week, and the recovery period has been spent in the company of family. The return to the presidency was set for Wednesday 28 October 2026, the very day the Russia-Africa summit opens in Moscow, a two-day meeting running through 29 October that the president will now miss.

What remains is a picture of an interruption rather than a crisis. A 63-year-old president felled by influenza, cared for in his own country’s hospital, thanking by name the staff who treated him and the people who stood by him, then preparing to pick up the reins again. The missed summit in Moscow stands as the clearest sign of what a week of illness can take away, even at the top of a small island state.

Further details on the president’s return can be found in the original report published by Outre-mer La 1ère: https://la1ere.franceinfo.fr/reunion/seychelles-patrick-herminie-le-president-de-la-republique-sera-de-retour-aux-manettes-du-pays-ce-28-octobre-2026-1751976.html

As Seychelles turns the page on this hospital stay, the focus shifts back to the work of governing, with a president restored to health and a nation that followed his recovery closely.