The entrance to the Pasteur 2 hospital of the CHU de Nice -

SYSPEO / SIPA

  • On Tuesday, the resuscitation capacity flirted with 90% in the Alpes-Maritimes department.

  • "We are ready to increase the capacity if necessary, but the time has passed to deprogram other operations", explains Professor Carole Ichai, head of the anesthesia-resuscitation-emergency department of the Nice University Hospital.

After having once again surpassed the record on Tuesday, the number of Covid-19 patients treated simultaneously in the intensive care units on the Riviera fell again this Wednesday, from 92 to 85 people.

But the Alpes-Maritimes, the department currently the most affected by the epidemic in terms of incidence, remains "on a plateau", according to Professor Carole Ichai.

20 Minutes

takes stock with the head of the anesthesia-resuscitation-emergency department of the CHU de Nice.

On Tuesday, the resuscitation capacity flirted with 90% in the department.

What is the current situation ?

We made three transfers just for the CHU de Nice [one to Marseille two weeks ago and two to Vannes, in Brittany, Thursday].

Until the middle of last week, we had to deal with a pretty big flow.

There are up to ten intensive care admissions in a single day at establishments in the department.

Since then, we have been on a sort of plateau with around ten beds still available.

And we are ready to increase the capacity if necessary, but the time has passed to deprogram other operations.

We are ready to adapt.

In the long term, since according to the models, we should not expect anything better before May or June.

It will also be necessary to deal with the vaccine and with the variants.

Precisely, does the English variant, for example, make you fear an increase in the number of cases and therefore, potentially, of serious cases?

It is still unclear how it is spreading.

There are not enough sequencing.

But it's already there, and for a few months, that's for sure.

Its contagiousness is more important, not especially its dangerousness, according to the information that we have.

So, we can indeed be worried, mechanically, about a rising number of hospitalizations if it affects people at risk.

How to explain that the department is still the most affected, for several weeks, in number of confirmed cases (450 per 100,000 inhabitants)?

Nobody really knows how to explain it, but there are some peculiarities that can perhaps come into play.

The proximity of a border, tourism, the airport ...

Does the 6 p.m. curfew show beneficial effects?

We do not know at the moment.

It's too early.

The first confinement, on the other hand, had worked very well.

But it has deleterious effects.

Beyond economic issues.

The psychological consequences are important.

We have even seen extremely serious depressions in children.

The covid must be taken care of.

But rather hybrid containment systems are needed, perhaps confining only those most at risk.

We have patients in intensive care who are 60 years old, even 50 years old, but each time they are people at risk.

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  • Health

  • Coronavirus

  • Covid 19

  • Nice