INVESTIGATION
The number of new cases of coronavirus registered decreases every day in France. The number of intensive care patients also continues to decline. Can we therefore attribute this slowdown to the announced end of the epidemic? Europe 1 investigated.
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In Seine-Saint-Denis, all the specialists expected to assist an outbreak of the epidemic: more fragile population, confinement in promiscuous conditions, in small apartments ... Today, Frédéric Adnet, chief of emergencies at the Avicenne hospital in Bobigny, makes a completely different observation. "If there is a department where there should be background noise Covid-19, it is Seine-saint-Denis. To my surprise, I do not observe it", he affirms to microphone from Europe 1.
"We have the feeling that the population is resisting better"
Frédéric Adnet remains cautious, however. "The hypothesis that I formulate, which is only an hypothesis, is 'Is there anything other than confinement to explain the drastic drop in the number of new cases in the emergency room?'", Questions he. Seasonality? Epidemic that goes away by itself? Doctors are not taking a position at the moment.
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"It is clear that the virus is less present. However, living conditions have not changed, there are even more people circulating because more people are working. But we have had few new cases in the past 15 days: we have the feeling that the population is resisting better, "says Christian Prud'homme, spokesperson for emergency doctors, formal for Seine-Saint-Denis.
Encouraging figures
What about the rest of France? The decrease also goes back to the hospitals of Garches and Pitié-Salpétrière, in Poitiers, which are more representative of the entire population. As for Doctors Without Borders, working with migrants and the homeless, the decline has also been noted. In late March, they registered 31% of suspicious cases, against 8% last week. Encouraging figures, which obviously do not exempt from compliance with health rules and barrier gestures.