Marseillais wait for coronavirus screening -

Jean-Francois Badias / AP / SIPA

  • Marseille elected officials and Minister of Health engage in a battle of numbers around the Covid-19

  • In Marseille, the incidence rate of the coronavirus, above the national average, has fallen slightly but for too little time to speak of a drop. 

  • Hospitals are now saturated. 

“I ask the government ten days before the implementation of new measures.

If at the end of next week the indicators start to rise again, we will be ready to take the necessary decisions.

"On the one hand, this Thursday, in front of an audience of journalists, Benoît Payan, first deputy mayor of Marseille, expressed his incomprehension, while the epidemiological situation" may improve in the days to come "in the second city ​​of France according to him, with regard to statistics of the Covid-19 "encouraging".

"The official figures of the Ministry of Health indicate that the peak of this phase of the epidemic was reached in the week of September 3 to 9", affirms the socialist, who claims "a scientific serenity, which is based on concrete figures, […] not on ministerial communication operations.

"

"We cannot afford to wait ten days"

On the other hand, in this strange battle of figures between Marseille and Paris, Olivier Véran, holds a completely different speech.

This Wednesday, the Minister of Health placed the Aix-Marseille metropolis in a “maximum alert zone” for the coronavirus, leading to the implementation of draconian measures.

A decision justified in particular by the incidence rate, greater than 250 cases per 100,000 inhabitants of the metropolis and 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants among the elderly in the sector.

"According to the indicators, we are in a situation where we cannot afford to wait ten more days," said the Prime Minister's entourage on BFMTV.

However, the government never gives precise and recent figures on the Marseille situation.

Contacted by

20 Minutes

, the Regional Health Agency of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region was not able to communicate them to us either.

A rising rate ... and falling

"The incidence rate, or rate of new positive cases, in Marseille has only increased since August," says Pascal Auquier, professor of epidemiology at the University of Aix-Marseille and at the Assistance Publique des Hôpitaux de Marseille (AP-HM).

It is true that by way of example, this rate was 214 the week of September 15 in the department, against 186.7 the previous week.

“The positivity rate is only declining, however pleads Benoît Payan.

It is 8.2% here against 10% for Paris according to Public Health France.

"" Extremely recently, over the last three or four days, the rate has fallen slightly, while remaining much higher than the national rate, recognizes Pascal Auquier.

And people are explaining that the epidemic is over.

But in three days, we don't have enough perspective!

"" Three or four days of stabilization displayed are not enough to consider that we are really on the right track, "tackled this Wednesday evening Olivier Véran.

Saturated hospitals

Above all, a real problem now arises in Marseille hospitals.

“We are at saturation point, laments Laurent Zieleskiewicz, deputy head of the intensive care anesthesia service at the North hospital in Marseille.

The number of patients in intensive care with Covid has multiplied by 20 in one month.

We run at 90% filling.

We are reaching the limit of optimization and we absolutely want to do everything to avoid deprogramming.

"

“All weekend, we did nothing but fill, testifies Sabine Valéra, nurse in intensive care at the North hospital and president of the federation of nurses in intensive care.

Today we have a full unit and we had to open another.

And since there is a lack of medical and paramedical personnel, it is shared with another service.

We try to make adjustments from day to day.

"

"Open beds, don't close restaurants"

According to our information, this Thursday, in the middle of the day, the AP-HM had opened 212 Covid beds against 139 beds only a fortnight ago.

However, this Thursday also, 40 of the 45 resuscitation beds available to patients with Covid-19 were occupied.

Or a rate of 90%, well beyond the critical limit of 30% set by the minister on Wednesday evening.

"If the situation worsens, if other people arrive, I really do not see how we are going to do it," worries Audrey Jolibois, secretary of the FO union of the AP-HM.

An urgent and very tense situation that prompted Benoît Payan to call on the government, as a conclusion to his press conference.

“Open beds, don't close restaurants!

», Asks the deputy mayor.

Because, as Pascal Auquier reminds us, “the people who are contaminated today will partly arrive in the intensive care units in ten to fifteen days.

"

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