- There are “only” 113 patients with coronavirus hospitalized at the Toulouse University Hospital, including 39 in intensive care.
- But teams expect a further increase in cases in late May, after deconfinement, in an area where the virus has circulated relatively little.
- The injuries related to confinement are increasing, and certain pathologies have worsened because the patients did not dare to seek emergency care during the peak of the epidemic.
A "plateau" offered by confinement, before an inevitable new climb. This Friday, 116 patients are in intensive care at the Toulouse University Hospital. But only 39, a third, are found there because of the coronavirus. "The majority of Covid-19 patients are more than 15 days old, we only receive one every two or three days, and the first extubates from the end of March / beginning of April have mostly returned home them ”, explains Béatrice Riu, head of the intensive care unit at Purpan.
"We are clearly reducing Covid activity," sums up Marc Penaud, the director of the CHU, but we remain vigilant, he continues, on the high probability of a re-increase at the end of May ". The "wave", or "ripple" nobody knows, of the deconfinement which must begin on May 11.
"We are only at the first ten terminals of a marathon"
But for now, yes, the CHU is breathing a bit. Some caregivers were even able to go on an Easter vacation. "It allows us to regain strength, said Vincent Bounes, the boss of the Samu, because we know that there will be resurgences and that we are only at the first 10 terminals of a marathon".
Besides, at Samu, the break is not really on the agenda: "Everything that the Covid activity loses, other pathologies gain". There are those who have not dared to disturb caregivers for chronic pathologies at the height of the epidemic and whose condition has worsened. Interventions directly related to containment are also increasing, due to violence behind closed doors or domestic accidents. The latter are up “by 37%”, with in particular the intoxication of children in the custody for more than a month now of tired parents.
"Lower immunity"
And, in general, the CHU does not "disarm" its units. "They have the capacity to scale up very quickly if necessary," insists Marc Penaud. How big is a need? The signals are contradictory. An "in-house" study, carried out in the emergency room, shows that only 2% of symptomatic children are actually actually infected with the coronavirus, compared to 25% of adults. A “striking” trend which would therefore show that the children are relatively spared and that the reopening of certain schools will not ignite too large strands.
Our file on the coronavirus
On the other hand, Toulouse and its region, relatively spared from the epidemic like the West of France in general, are exposed to a boomerang effect. "The virus has circulated less, therefore there is a risk that global immunity will be weaker," said Jacques Izopet, head of the virology department. So it's probably just a respite.
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