Sixteen deaths linked to Covid-19 in a Charente-Maritime nursing home

• Sixteen people have died in a Tonnay-Charente nursing home since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic. The information would not have been quickly communicated.
• Dominique Bussereau, president of the Charente-Maritime departmental council, had a rant after learning of these deaths through the press.
• The president of the Charente Maritime department denounces the "dysfunctions" of the Regional Health Agency and claims to have immediately contacted Olivier Véran, the Minister of Health.

"Unacceptable malfunctions". It is in these terms that Dominique Bussereau returned, this Saturday, on the 16 deaths occurred in an Ephad of Tonnay-Charente, Les Portes du jardin. On Twitter, the president of the Charente-Maritime department took the opportunity to tackle the Regional Health Agency (ARS) which, according to him, has demonstrated, since the revelation of the case by our colleagues from  South West , "d 'A deafening silence ".

I condemn the deafening silence of @ARS_NAquit after the death of 16 residents of the Tonnay-Charente Ephad in @ departement17. I have seized @olivierveran @ PrefAquitaine33 @ Prefet17 of these inadmissible dysfunctions.

These 16 deaths range from March to May and, if they are, as just confirmed by the ARS of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, well linked to the Covid-19 epidemic, they would account for a third of the 48 deaths that occurred in Charente-Maritime. On France 3, Dominique Bussereau spoke of a “dramatic, the largest cluster in the department” assessment and denounced the “technocratic and centralized” functioning of the ARS as well as a lack of transparency.

For its part, the ARS assures today that the last case of Covid-19 at the Tonnay-Charente Ephad dates back to the beginning of May and that the protocol has been respected. Screenings would have been carried out after the hospitalization of the first four residents and the health organization would have reported, as early as March, the first cases positive for Covid-19. Thirteen in total, among residents and staff.

Dominique Bussereau exchanged SMS with Olivier Véran

The director of the La Rochelle hospital center communicated on these cases in mid-April, but since then nothing. The information would never have been relayed to the town hall and would not have reached the upper strata of the ARS or the services of the cotutelle, that of the Department. Hence the rage from Dominique Bussereau, who learned of the source of contamination through the press. The latter claims to have requested explanations from the prefectures of New Aquitaine and Charente-Maritime but also from the Minister of Health.

Read our file on the Covid-19

To our colleagues at France Bleu, the president of the department said he had exchanged SMS with Olivier Véran but did not wish to respond to requests from 20 Minutes . "From now on, this is no longer my business," warned Dominique Bussereau. For his part, the mayor of Tonnay-Charente is more nuanced. Eric Authiat still slipped to France 3 that he would have liked to be warned in an official way and not by the parents of the 120 elderly people living at Les Portes du jardin. To date, five residents have died in the nursing home, and 11 in the hospital.

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