Why New Caledonia Resisted Coronavirus

• On April 16, the head of the government of New Caledonia, Thierry Santa, announced that the country could enter into adapted confinement as of April 20. And this, for two weeks, the situation to be reassessed on May 3.
• Geographical remoteness, draconian measures, civic-mindedness of the inhabitants ... New Caledonia was spared by the Covid-19. Only 18 cases have been detected since the start of the epidemic, and again, these were imported cases.
• On the whole, the Caledonians contacted welcomed the way in which the local authorities took charge of the situation. Without knowing what the economic consequences of the health crisis will be. And many fear being faced with their first wave of the Covid-19 epidemic.

The Caledonian exception. Since Monday April 20, New Caledonia has been in “adapted confinement”. Restaurants, hairdressers and many other businesses were able to resume their activities, the students returned to class on Wednesday. What to challenge the French in mainland France and other overseas, all suspended on the deconfinement plan to be presented this Tuesday by the Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe: how did this community with special status withstand the wave of Covid- 19?

Only 18 cases, all imported

Located 17,000 km from the metropolis, Caillou and its 271,000 inhabitants have been somewhat spared the virus. "Here, we never had a single indigenous case, reports to  20 Minutes Olivier Poisson, editor-in-chief of Nouvelles-Calédoniennes , the only general information daily in the community . The 18 cases of Covid-19 that have been detected so far were all imported cases. This Tuesday, according to the overall health situation communicated by the Caledonian government, "17 patients had left the hospital, and the last patient was not resuscitated". In addition, "of the 156 screenings carried out [Tuesday, 4,612 carried out since March 18], all were negative". No new cases have appeared since April 6.

YES !! None have noted that New Caledonia has been far-sighted; its Gouvt has closed port & airport as of the first containment alert for the population. Out of containment today. There have been 18 confirmed cases of no deaths. Caledonians arriving from France & USA will remain confined for 21 days https://t.co/jPLRTlk1OQ

Several reasons can be put forward to explain that New Caledonia did not have to face a "first wave": the day after the inventory of the first two cases of contamination (March 17), the president (LR) of the government, Thierry Santa has announced that all flights to and from the Caillou will be suspended beginning the following week - the measure will take effect on March 20. Returned passengers would also have to follow around fourteen in hotels, followed by seven days of home confinement, or three weeks of complete isolation. The fine which would be imposed in the event of non-compliance with confinement would amount to 775 euros, a rather dissuasive sum - it amounts to 135 euros in mainland France.

"A panic fear of illness"

20 Minutes was not able to know how many VPs had been drawn on the Caillou. Nevertheless, "the confinement has been observed on the whole," notes Olivier Poisson, who allows himself, with tweezers, because the subject is sensitive, to attribute this compliance with health obligations to a "historical reason": “Among Oceanians, there is also a panic fear of the disease. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Kanaks lost a large part of their population with the arrival of the settlers and their microbes, against which they were not immune, ”he said.

In an article published on April 9 (reserved for subscribers), Le Monde recalls that, as of mid-March, the customary Senate launched this alert against an "imminent danger": "The protection of human life (...) deserves decisions the most draconian, wrote Hippolyte Sinewami Htamumu, president of this unique institutional Kanak interlocutor. Our territory can quickly find itself "decimated", particularly its villages or small islands populated by a few hundred or thousands of souls. "

Olivier Poisson completes: “The customary chefs knew that, if a case arrived, it would be extremely complicated to contain the virus, due to the promiscuity in the tribe, the lack of water points, which would not have made it possible to respect barrier gestures. Tribes have also made roadblocks to prevent anyone from entering. And the Tontouta International Airport was literally taken by storm by gangs of young people who opened doors, because they wanted the site to close.

A very high rate of comorbidity

To this trauma is added a real public health problem, which increases the fear of being contaminated. On Caillou, obesity and diabetes, which are co-morbidities of Covid-19, are wreaking havoc. According to the New Caledonia Health and Social Agency (ASS-NC), more than 20,000 people are diabetic, which represents 10% of the adult population, against 4% in mainland France.

Joseph Alaimo, a pensioner who lives in Koné, in the North province, evokes, “the civic spirit of the Caledonians, who know very well that, when the authorities impose a measure, it is not for nothing. When there are cyclones, for example, people know that you shouldn't go out. In the case of the new coronavirus, they quickly understood that alerts should not be taken lightly. Especially since nobody knows if he is carrying the virus and that we knew that we could not have a mask. "Our witness took the opportunity to salute" the good relations with the gendarmes ", who, in his eyes," facilitated the respect of obligations ":" Here, the gendarmes seem to me more to serve the population than to punish them. Me, I was checked several times and, frankly, I did not have the feeling of being attacked, as I could see on videos which showed muscular interventions of the police forces in mainland France. "

All the more strong and symbolic proof of this good cooperation, "we saw customaries from Ouvéa [theater, in 1988, of hostage-taking by gendarmes and the culmination of" Events "in New Caledonia] go round with the gendarmes to explain to the residents that they had to stay at home, ”notes Olivier Poisson.

In terms of health, New Caledonia has therefore fared rather well. "Each passing day lets us think that the virus does not circulate within the Caledonian population," said Thierry Santa on April 16. And to announce, alongside the high commissioner, Laurent Prévost, the representative of the French state, a return "to the freedom to come and go" from April 20, for two weeks.

The situation reassessed on May 3

On May 3, the health situation will be reassessed, the authorities said in the decree published on April 19 in the Official Journal of New Caledonia. Currently, access by air or sea to New Caledonia remains restricted to the supply of goods, emergency situations and the repatriation of some 2,000 Caledonian residents stranded abroad or in mainland France. "The authorities wait until there are less than 600 people in hotels before re-authorizing a plane to land here," said Olivier Poisson of the New Caledonians - 542 people were still in the fortnight at the hotel on Tuesday. This Monday, the company Air Calédonie, more commonly called Aircal and which serves the domestic network of the territory, indicated that it would resume its flights on May 4, with a maximum of 35 passengers per rotation, and that its ticket sales agencies would reopen on Thursday. Day when Le Betico , the ferry serving the Loyalty Islands, will also resume its rotations.

Daniel Goa, president of the Caledonian Union calls for "an extension of the confinement from 14 to 21 days for Caledonian returnees. Any attempt by the High Commissioner to oppose this decision would cause a major political crisis". https://t.co/9uQ9Jome6P

If this first week of suitable confinement went well, concerns persist. Sunday, about fifty people gathered in the village of Tontouta at the call of the customs of Païta, on the outskirts of Nouméa. They intended to voice their concerns about the possible arrival of military and / or administrative relief in New Caledonia. A few days ago, Daniel Goa, president of the Union Calédonienne independence party, demanded "another fourteen days [of confinement] to verify the absence of the virus in the population".

Caledonians, kanaks or not, are indeed very afraid that the epidemic will (re) take hold. "There has never been a first wave or an indigenous case," insists Olivier Poisson. On the other hand, there is no collective immunity here. And we only have 20 places in intensive care, so if there is indeed a real wave, it will be a hit. "Christophe O'Connor, professor of modern literature in a high school in Noumea, abounds:" Distance is our best asset, as it is also our major handicap. All it takes is a poorly controlled person, a false negative, for example, and we will derail, like the rest of the world. "

In New Caledonia, the population celebrates deconfinement like the Liberation of Paris in August 1944. What they do not realize is that the government deconfines only because it does not have the monetary means to pay one day more economic paralysis. #GreatFreeze

Economic concerns

So far, and contrary to what can happen in mainland France, the population believes that the situation has been well managed: "Our authorities reacted in time", say Christophe O'Connor like Olivier Poisson. There remains an unknown, the economic health of the territory.

According to a report from Cerom (Rapid Economic Accounts for Overseas), dated April 22 and entitled the economic impacts of Covid-19 in New Caledonia, "the average activity rate would be 56% and growth 2020's annual GDP would then be 3.6 points lower than it would have been if this health crisis had not existed. Most of these losses [estimated, in the high range, at 41.9 billion peaceful francs, or 351 million euros], but not all, certainly cannot be made up for. "

Alignment of partial unemployment with that of mainland France

Support measures have, of course, been put in place, as pointed out to 20 Minutes Christopher Gygès, responsible for the economy within the government of New Caledonia: “We have drawn up a plan to safeguard the economy to three communities. There is the state solidarity fund [in the southern province, 4,300 applications have been filed, said last week the CCI] and the cash loan granted by the banks to businesses. There is also direct economic aid for the treasury and the maintenance of employment allocated by the provinces. On the government side, we have implemented the partial unemployment system, which is the same as that of mainland France [84% of net wages, 70% of gross]. " 

A significant clarification, because in New Caledonia, partial unemployment is less advantageous, amounting, in ordinary times, to 66% of the SMG. This readjustment is allowed thanks to the State, which will provide its guarantee to the Caledonian government for a loan of 240 million euros. Today, 15,200 people out of 66,000 working people are partially unemployed on the Caillou.

If New Caledonia presents “many points of resilience”, underlines the Cerom study, a sector could however be affected more severely, that of tourism, relatively modest (it reached a peak of 120,000 tourists in 2018), total halt since the start of the crisis. But also the business activity (bars, restaurants ...) and personal services (hairdressers, osteopaths ...), adds Christopher Gygès. The latter is nevertheless optimistic: “The confinement lasted less long than in mainland France and measures were taken very quickly, our economic activity is degraded, but not as much as some other countries. "As for the number of unemployed, which jumped 7.1% in March in France, the figures are not yet available, recognizes Christopher Gygès, but," according to the first trends, they would not be not exponential, "he advises cautiously:" We will have to see how we get out of reinforced partial unemployment ", which should run until the end of May.

What about the second referendum?

In New Caledonia, contextualizes Cerom, this health crisis occurs while the economy has been installed for several years in a slow growth trajectory, and that the year 2020 was already shaping up to be delicate due to the institutional uncertainties linked to the second referendum on independence, maintained on September 6.

"For the moment, it has no impact," says Christopher Gygès. But I speak as a member of a loyalist party [The Future in Confidence, Anti-Independence Right]. I can just tell you that we see that it is thanks to France that we can pay salaries today, and that we have an efficient health system, which has enabled us to curb the epidemic. "

A new model of society

New Caledonia has resisted Covid-19, it could even come out stronger. The health crisis would indeed have accelerated the new model of society on which the provinces and government are working.

Our file on containment

“We want a much more agile, united and environmental economic system, insists Christopher Gygès. On agility, we are aiming for administrative burdens that are much lighter than in the past: we are 270,000 inhabitants, we don't need to ask for four forms when we only need one. The crisis has also shown that digitization can be accelerated. In terms of solidarity, we need to improve wages. Finally, on the environmental aspect, we must make mining activity more sustainable: by selling cleaner nickel, we will have an advantage on the market. "

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