A resuscitation team from the Purpan University Hospital in Toulouse, at the bedside of a Covid patient.

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F. Scheiber - Sipa

  • Intensive care admissions have been progressing for two weeks at Toulouse University Hospital where specialists predict a continuation of the phenomenon.

  • For now, the patient profile is the same as for the first wave.

  • The Samu, where calls have jumped 40%, has just reactivated its crisis unit.

With 54 patients * suffering from Covid-19, including 13 in intensive care, when they were only a dozen in the middle of the summer, “the second wave” is rising slowly, but “clearly”, at the CHU de Toulouse.

"The pace is different from March, nevertheless I believe that it will continue to rise when we see the acceleration in terms of positivity rate", warns Professor Pierre Delobel, head of the infectious diseases department.

In the Pink City, where the prefect announced a second round of restrictive measures on Friday, the positivity rate is 10%, double the national average.

And in the hospital environment, there are signs that never fail.

The reactivation of the emergency response unit for example.

"The number of calls has jumped by 40%," says its manager Vincent Bounes.

He no longer counts the worried calls linked to family clusters and underlines the growing number of young people, worried students, "who feel oppressed at the respiratory level".

“When you're symptomatic, you don't go see grandpa and grandma!

"

Young people who do not add to the hospital statistics for the moment, at least not directly.

"But damn it when you're symptomatic, you don't go see grandpa and grandma!"

», The emergency physician gets angry.

Because it is rather the grandparents that we find in intensive care.

These patients have according to Béatrice Riu-Poulenc, head of intensive care at Purpan, the "same profile" as those of the first wave.

They are generally 60-70 years old and have other weaknesses, with the exception of two patients "in their forties", received last week "without any history or overweight".

So, is there a risk of overheating in Toulouse in the coming weeks?

"Our challenge will be to combine this second wave with normal hospital activity, explains Marc Penaud, the director general of the CHU, and we have anticipated this during the summer".

Some 500 staff have been recruited and the teams have more than three months of stock in protective equipment, including the famous masks, charlottes and gowns.

The manager also and above all calls "not to go to the emergency room" to try to be tested.

Change in drives

In terms of screening precisely, the sinews of war, the CHU will also adapt to the Toulouse context of the lines which lengthen interminably.

The Purpan drive standard has long since passed.

From this Monday, the reception will be without appointment, 7 days a week.

“But the 7 am-noon slot will be reserved for priority personnel and symptomatic patients who have a prescription,” announces virologist Jacques Izopet, head of the biology department.

At the Rangueil drive, strategically placed in front of the university, there will now be two lines.

To accelerate the results of symptomatic young people.

* Figures as of Friday September 17

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