Completely overwhelmed by the sudden spread of Covid-19 linked to the Delta variant, French Polynesia must apply strict restrictions.

The High Commissioner of the Republic in French Polynesia, Dominique Sorain announced on franceinfo that the confinement, the curfew and the traffic restrictions in force since August 23 would be "extended".

To strengthen hospital services, thirty-six members of the health reserve arrived Wednesday evening (Thursday in Paris) in Papeete.

A hundred in total are expected over the week to support the hospital center and peripheral hospitals, all saturated in the face of the explosion in admissions.

Nurses and nursing assistants in intensive care, these volunteers mobilized by the State are deployed for a mission of three weeks on average.

“The hospital was no longer able to cope with all the cases presented to it.

And we observed that a phenomenon of saturation, of hospital embolism, was emerging, ”explained Cédric Bouet, chief of staff to the high commissioner.

Towards a border closure

French Polynesia recorded 387 new hospitalizations for Covid-19 in one week, a figure that has been rising steadily since the release of the Delta variant at the end of July, according to the local Ministry of Health. "This situation of astonishment with which we have all been confronted for a few weeks already testifies in reality to your notorious inability to manage this crisis", wrote the independentist representative to the assembly of French Polynesia Eliane Tevahitua to the local government. The latter also denounced the “laxity” of the State in terms of border control.

“I did not understand why after 160 deaths we did not close the territory when we realized that every day we had deaths.

There was even a weekend when we had 54 deaths: it is as if in France there were 13,000 deaths in 72 hours, it is enormous ”, declared Stéphane Milon, deputy director of the Te Tiare rehabilitation center. , which now provides post-covid care.

"Explosion of festive gatherings"

On the local channel TNTV, Patrick Galenon, the general secretary of the CSTP-FO, the most important local union, asked for "really strict confinement", denouncing the many possible exemptions.

He also regretted "an explosion of political rallies, an explosion of festive gatherings, the opening of schools", until the beginning of August, which he said favored contamination.

The epidemic has killed 446 people, including 115 last week.

Health officials acknowledged that these figures did not include covid-related deaths that occurred at home, the number of which is not known.

The local government is focusing its efforts on vaccination and care: there are fewer screenings and the incidence rate, which in recent days has exceeded the dizzying figure of more than 3,000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, can no longer be assessed.

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  • Curfew

  • Confinement

  • Polynesia

  • Covid 19

  • epidemic

  • Coronavirus

  • Health

  • French Polynesia

  • Overseas