Carry-le-Rouet (France) (AFP)
Where to find cigarettes or a telephone adapter, how to wash your clothes? Wuhan returnees made their mark on Saturday in the Carry-le-Rouet holiday center where they will be confined for two weeks, trying to cope with some practical problems.
The day after their return to France, the 179 people who must spend 14 days in isolation as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus were given a thermometer. Twice a day, ideally before breakfast and before dinner, they should take their temperature and communicate it to the nurses responsible for their medical follow-up.
In the morning, some took advantage of a view of the sea to immortalize the sunrise, others strolled through the hotel complex or offered themselves some outdoor reading in relatively mild weather.
"There is worse as a place," smiles amid the cries of laughing children Marc Zyltman, the person in charge of the Red Cross on the site. "The easy solution would have been an abandoned barracks" for the quarantine, he explains to AFP, but the authorities preferred to choose a place where the period of confinement will be the least unpleasant possible.
"The site must be pleasant to live in because people will spend 14 days there," confirms Mr. Zyltman.
- "Rather friendly" -
Volleyball games for teens, modeling clay for the little ones, convivial space for adults over a coffee: the center of Carry-le-Rouet looks more like a summer camp than a 'a hospital or health center.
At this stage, none of the people in confinement have any symptoms that would suggest infection with the new coronavirus. Two suspected cases, identified at the exit of the plane Friday, were in the process tested negative at the Marseille hospital in La Timone.
The medical staff present in Carry-le-Rouet include around twenty people - doctors, nurses, psychologists - supported by soldiers from the civil security and 30 volunteers of the Red Cross, notably in charge of logistical questions.
On the first day of confinement, some returnees had mainly practical concerns on Saturday after arriving in France in a rush: how to wash their clothes? How to change your yuan for euros? Where to get cigarettes? A concierge service was set up on Saturday to best meet the needs of returnees.
"Last night, they were tired, it's normal. People went to bed quietly after the evening meal. Now life is back to normal, and it's going pretty well," continues Marc Zyltman.
Saturday, near the Vacanciel center, the gendarmes continued to closely monitor the only entrance to the site, in the middle of a pine forest, in a cove more than 3 kilometers from downtown Carry-le-Rouet.
The parents of a repatriated student came to bring him a travel bag containing clean clothes. They had to leave the bag at the center gate, at the gendarmes present.
The father said he was reassured that his son was taken care of in France, adding that the latter had spoken to them of a "rather friendly" atmosphere. "I think they are all relieved to be there, in very good conditions," he assured the press in front of the center.
© 2020 AFP