INTERVIEW
"We are not far from the epidemic peak, which will happen in the coming days," said Marc Del Grande, prefect of Guyana, guest of Europe 1, Sunday. Guyana was close to 5,000 cases on Saturday (4,913 cases, +355 cases in 24 hours), including 129 hospitalized patients, 23 in intensive care, and 16 deaths, pushing its three hospitals to trigger the "white plan" to deal with the accelerating epidemic. Guyana is currently the French department most affected by Covid-19. At the microphone of Europe 1, Marc Del Grande returned to the measures deployed on site to curb the epidemic and avoid saturation of the hospital system.
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Reinforcement caregivers, sending sanitary material
Measures have also been put in place to strengthen its hospital capacities. "This week, we had 23 nursing staff arrived as reinforcements and about fifty will arrive next week," said Marc Del Grande, also referring to 130 reservists acting, for a month, "for the benefit of strengthening our health capacities, hospitals, sampling capacities, and projection on the different points of our territory ". A territory as large as Portugal.
A civil security field hospital has also been set up at the Cayenne hospital center. "He is able to manage twenty non-Covid patients, allowing the hospital to focus on Covid patients," said the prefect.
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The coronavirus having blazed lagged in Guyana compared to France, the department has not suffered as much from the shortage of sanitary equipment. Also, adds Marc Del Grande, "nearly 4 million surgical masks, 400,000 FFP2 masks and 120 gowns and gowns have arrived recently and allow Guyanese caregivers to give their maximum".
On the other hand, Guyana lived, at the same rate as the rest of France, the beginning of confinement. A confinement from which it has not yet, in view of the increase in cases, completely emerged.
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Patient transfers to the West Indies
"For the moment, we do not see the end of the tunnel," laments Marc Del Grande, who adds that, confined since mid-March, "Guyana is experiencing a long-term crisis". Also, targeted confinements have been put in place in the most affected neighborhoods, and curfews are planned daily from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. "The goal is for the Guyanese, who show great resilience, to travel only to meet their basic needs and go to work," said the guest from Europe 1.
In addition, a military aircraft was deployed to carry out medical evacuations to the West Indies. "Two have already been done, others are scheduled for Monday," said Marc Del Grande.
Indeed, he specifies, "Guyana cannot count on its neighbors, Suriname and Amapa (Brazilian region bordering French Guyana, Editor's note), which do not have the capacity to welcome our patients" . The only solution therefore remains the West Indies or France, "which complicates the maneuvers of patient transfers".