Bordeaux (AFP)

"Giving air" to hospitals hit by the "wave": New Aquitaine, a region still relatively unaffected by the epidemic due to the coronavirus, is preparing to welcome Sunday 36 patients from the Great East, at the end of the most important medical evacuation of Covid-19 patients carried out to date.

With the epidemic swelling, patient transfers have been accelerating since Friday to relieve the congestion in hospitals, as in the Grand Est, one of the regions most heavily affected with Saturday 3,777 people hospitalized, including 786 in intensive care, and 757 death.

"It is necessary to free beds, it is absolutely necessary to give air to the resuscitation service. We are always in a continuous increase in the number of patients", alarms the head of emergencies of the regional hospital center (CHR) of Metz, François Braun.

For several days, the authorities have been preparing the transfer by two medical TGVs of 36 patients from the stations of Mulhouse and Nancy to ten Aquitaine establishments, from Angoulême to Pau. The arrival of these trains - "Chardon 2" and "Chardon 3" - is scheduled for the afternoon.

Between Friday and Saturday, 18 patients, mainly from Mulhouse and Colmar, have already been evacuated, including 6 by military plane to the Bordeaux University Hospital in particular and 12 by private medical planes to the two other Aquitaine University hospitals, Limoges and Poitiers. Transfers that are part of Operation Resilience, launched by Emmanuel Macron, or 54 patients in three days to this region.

Two patients from Metz were also evacuated on Saturday by a military helicopter to Germany.

The train from Mulhouse will transport 12 patients to Poitiers and the other, from Nancy, will transport 24 others to Bordeaux station then to Bayonne station. They will then be taken by ambulance to the hospitals.

- Rolling hospital -

Transfers from Nancy concern "12 patients from Metz and 12 from Nancy", detailed to AFP the head of emergency in Metz. The operations will start "around 05H00-06H00 in the morning" for a late morning departure.

These are patients "in a state of being transferred, without complications in progress (...) They are always intubated, ventilated, asleep and they do not need to be put on their stomachs to breathe", according to Mr. Braun.

On board the trains, fitted out as a rolling hospital, "four patients will be installed in each car with, for each of the cars, an anesthetist or a senior emergency doctor, an intern, a nurse anesthetist, three nurses, possibly a logistics specialist," said AFP the Ministry of Solidarity and Health.

The teams will be supported by around fifteen professionals from the Bordeaux University Hospital.

The TGV has the advantage of being "particularly stable compared to other vectors and ultimately particularly safe. We have more space, more teams inside, more equipment", explained François Braun on Saturday inter France .

- 188 beds in "sheave" available -

With 490 hospitalizations in progress recorded on Saturday, including 127 people in intensive care or intensive care, New Aquitaine is among the regions least affected by the epidemic.

According to figures released on Friday, 188 beds in "intensive care" are available on 561 places, a margin of maneuver which allows him to participate in this "big welcome movement", for now. Because here too the "wave" is expected.

"We also thought that welcoming them right away would allow us to get most of them out in good shape before most of the wave hits us (in New Aquitaine)," Michel said on Friday. Laforcade, Director General of the Regional Health Agency (ARS) Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

There remains the challenge of absorbing these new arrivals without "saturating" its own capacities, but the ARS ensures that it can keep "3/4 of its reception capacities in intensive care and critical care".

"The war, we will probably win it on the question of resuscitation beds, with our capacity at the level of the national territory to use well, in an intelligent, well coordinated way, our means in resuscitation, by supporting each other to the within a region and between regions ", estimated the general director of the CHR of Metz, Marie-Odile Saillard.

© 2020 AFP