Jean Castex (Illustration) -

SYSPEO / SIPA

After the national tribute paid to the victims of the terrorist attack in Nice, Prime Minister Jean Castex went on Saturday to caregivers of the Loire, severely affected by the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic which continues to progress.

"I did not simply come to encourage you, but also to better understand your reality, and possibly help unblock things", declared the Prime Minister to the carers of the emergency services of the CHU of Saint-Etienne, in this department. whose health situation is the most degraded in France.

"Tired but totally mobilized" staff

“These personnel are tired but totally mobilized, it is absolutely remarkable, noted Jean Castex.

But they all told me that the best thing is to prevent sick people from coming to the hospital, rather than being evacuated.

And for that, there is no other solution than to strictly respect confinement and barrier gestures, ”he repeated.

In the Loire, the incidence rate now exceeds 1,000 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 inhabitants, while in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes the incidence rate has quadrupled in one month, according to the director of the ARS Jean-Yves Grall.

Since mid-October, around sixty patients in the area have had to be transferred to hospitals in other regions.

Arrived at the beginning of the afternoon, the Prime Minister successively went through the emergency services, Covid resuscitation and Samu-15, before participating in a round table with elected officials and representatives of local health authorities.

"A mark of recognition appreciated by the teams", greeted the emergency manager of the CHU, Alain Viallon, after having guided Jean Castex in the corridors of his department.

Within the Saint-Etienne intensive care unit, 37 of the 40 available beds are currently occupied.

“They fill up as soon as they are emptied,” comments Sophie Preynat, senior health officer at the hospital.

“The staff are calm but tired, we make them go back to their rest a lot to manage all these patients, even if the flow has slowed down for the others.

"

Put the health emergency back to the center

"In the 12 public and private establishments in the Loire region, as far as the north of the Ardèche, the number of hospitalizations continues to increase, with around 750 patients, even if it has been slower for ten days" , observes Pascale Mocaër, interim director general of the CHU of Saint-Etienne and of the hospital center of Roanne.

Officially, this visit aimed to take the pulse of caregivers and show them the government's support in this new ordeal.

But the entourage of the head of government also stressed his desire to put the health emergency back at the center of attention, after several days of heated debates around the modalities of the second confinement.

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