• Increase in contamination and hospitalizations: Martinique and Guadeloupe are suffering the full brunt of a strong epidemic wave of Covid-19.

  • In question, the low vaccination coverage on the two islands, where part of the population remains reluctant to face the vaccine.

  • For the government, the urgency is now to accelerate the vaccination campaign in these overseas territories.

Less than one in five adults vaccinated in Martinique.

Contaminations and hospitalizations that are skyrocketing on the island and in neighboring Guadeloupe.

In the West Indies, where a particularly virulent fourth epidemic wave of coronavirus is raging, the health situation is deteriorating, while the anti-Covid vaccination campaign is struggling to take off.

For the government, the race against time has been launched to thwart local reluctance and accelerate the anti-Covid vaccination campaign.

Incidence rate and hospitalizations on the rise

While in mainland France, the highest incidence rates observed last week were in Corsica (630 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, -4%), Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (590, + 3%) and Occitanie (413, -2%), in the Overseas Territories, "the incidence rate was very high and reached 1,893 [cases] per 100,000 [people] (+ 116%) in Guadeloupe and 1,181 (+ 8%)", where "the situation is very worrying in Guadeloupe and Martinique", underlines Public Health France in its epidemiological bulletin published this Thursday. This is twice as much as in metropolitan areas where the virus circulates most actively.

Consequence: the hospital impact of this fourth epidemic wave continues, with “weekly rates of new hospitalizations and critical care admissions increasing in Guadeloupe. The highest rates were recorded in Martinique and Guadeloupe ", far ahead of Guyana and Reunion, continues the health agency, which also observes a" high mortality linked to Covid-19 in Martinique ". “The patients are young, very young. In the emergency room, they are 40-50 years old. In intensive care, they can be 20 or 30 years old ”, underlined the Minister of Health Olivier Véran during a press point with his colleague from Overseas Sébastien Lecornu, after a visit to the CHU of Fort. -of France.

"The health situation is out of proportion with what we have seen in previous waves and especially in metropolitan France," added Olivier Véran.

This week, 274 caregivers from metropolitan France flew to the West Indies to lend a hand in hospitals in tension.

Reluctance to vaccination

Because this epidemic wave which hits the Antilles is breaking with particular virulence. In question, the reluctance of part of the population in the face of vaccination. At 74, Edwige Dupuy, is "for the moment not vaccinated". "I am not against the vaccine, but I find that we do not have enough perspective," explains this retiree who lives in Le Diamant, who still prefers "to wait a bit". And like her, many Martinicans prefer "to wait for version 2 of the vaccine", and "not to want to play Russian roulette".

Jeannette Coton-Pelagie, 63, Edwige's sister, is vaccinated, but she justifies the reluctance of some by the case of chlordecone, a pesticide long used in banana plantations in the West Indies, considered as an endocrine disruptor and classified as carcinogenic. likely by WHO.

“President Emmanuel Macron told us that chlordecone was not harmful on West Indian soil [during his trip to the West Indies in September 2018].

But when we see the number of patients with prostate disorders, we have the impression that the Republic is lying to us, ”she said.

“Now they say that the vaccine can help us fight against Covid, but how can you not be suspicious?

"

"The population felt immune" by "its insularity"

Hesitations also shared by local elected officials. “The question of vaccination still arises. I believe that really in the Overseas it will be something complicated ", estimates the mayor of the commune of Diamant, Hugues Toussay, who is also not vaccinated, but" will perhaps evolve in [his] reflection ". In addition to "months of struggle with the State concerning chlordecone", for the city councilor, also dominates the feeling that the West Indian populations have experienced a lag of the epidemic in time compared to the Hexagon. "The population felt immune, protected" by its "insularity", he said, also deploring the deleterious influence "of social networks" on public opinion.

Joyce Thelam, a young man of 33, prefers traditional “effective remedies”, believing that the vaccine “is useless”, in a rhetoric using certain conspiracy theories conveyed by social networks.

“Look at Jacob Desvarieux [the founder of the Kassav group], he had received three doses of the vaccine and he died of Covid,” he cites as an example.

A very special case, however, since the singer, who had a kidney transplant, had an extremely weak immune system due to the immunosuppressive treatment he was taking, making the vaccine less effective.

Speed ​​up the vaccine campaign in the West Indies

So, to avoid an epidemic wave totally out of control, the government is doing everything to speed up the vaccine campaign in the West Indies.

“The wave of covid hitting the West Indies is the consequence of insufficient vaccination.

It makes thousands of patients, dozens of deaths per day and puts stress on the health system, ”insisted the Minister of Health on Twitter.

I come to Martinique to say things.

The wave of covid hitting the West Indies is the consequence of insufficient vaccination.

It kills thousands of people, doeszens of deaths a day and puts stress on the health system.

My thoughts are with the families.

- Olivier Véran (@olivierveran) August 12, 2021

For the time being, barely 18% of the Martinican population is fully vaccinated, or less than one in five adults.

And in Guadeloupe, only 31.3% of those over 18 received their first dose of vaccine, according to figures from the island's ARS.

“The hospital is full of patients who were afraid of the vaccine instead of being afraid of the virus.

It is unbearable, because it is avoidable, ”lamented Olivier Véran.

However, “there are vaccines here for everyone, the same as in mainland France.

Effective, safe, they save lives everywhere, in quantity ”, he added to the address of the most reluctant to the vaccine, judging that there was“ no rational explanation ”for the delay in vaccination. West Indies.

“Vaccination has been around for more than a century, it is prevention par excellence,” he insisted.

Health

Coronavirus: The number of hospitalizations still on the rise in France, a worrying situation in the West Indies

Health

Coronavirus in Guadeloupe: Saturated hospitals take the full brunt of the epidemic "peak"

  • Covid 19

  • epidemic

  • Guadeloupe

  • Martinique

  • Society

  • Coronavirus