"We will still need reinforcements."
The words of the director of the Martinique Regional Health Agency resonated throughout France.
In recent weeks, France has sent dozens of caregivers to the West Indies, where the Covid-19 epidemic has exploded this summer.
This Friday, 27 health professionals based in Brittany agreed to take the plane to reach the island, where the epidemic is "at a very high level" despite "a relative stabilization".
The director of the ARS Jérôme Viguier did not hesitate to speak of an "extremely tense situation", in particular in the hospitals of the island.
The incidence rate has stabilized "around 1,200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants" in recent days.
Figures far above the most affected metropolitan regions such as Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (589 per 100,000), Corsica (510) or Occitanie (391).
To cope with "the particularly critical situation in Martinique", 27 health personnel installed in Brittany left Friday for two weeks.
They joined their colleagues already there, those who left on Tuesday August 10 and 17.
“These healthcare professionals are between 20 and 69 years old.
They are doctors, nurses and caregivers and come from public and private establishments in the region and from emergency services, intensive care and general medicine, ”said ARS Brittany in a press release.
About fifty volunteers will have left Brittany, where the epidemic is increasing but remains under control, to reach the West Indies.
The first caregivers who left on August 10 will return on August 23.
Except four, who will continue their mission for a few more days.
Society
Coronavirus in Guadeloupe: Local elected officials request a postponement of the start of the school year
Society
Fire in the Var: Sixty firefighters from the West sent to reinforce
Medicine
epidemic
Martinique
Hospital
Covid 19
Coronavirus
Reindeer
Health