New Caledonia is still far from having won its battle against the Coronavirus.

The French archipelago in the South Pacific has been facing an outbreak of Covid-19 cases since September 6 due to the highly contagious Delta variant.

According to the latest figures released by the local government on Monday, 31 people have died in the past three days, bringing the total to 93, almost all unvaccinated.

Since the start of the crisis, 6,379 cases have been identified, including 194 in the last 24 hours on Monday, and 52 patients are in intensive care at the Médipôle de Koutio, a territorial hospital center.

The incidence rate of the virus hovers around 800 per 100,000 inhabitants.

109 back-up caregivers

“The saturation of our Covid beds is 85 to 95%.

(…) Of the 500 hospital beds, there are 400 Covid beds, which is absolutely colossal, ”Thierry de Greslan, president of the Médipôle establishment medical commission, told RRB radio on Monday.

Exhausted, the local medical teams received on Saturday the reinforcement of 109 caregivers from the health reserve, who arrived from Metropolitan France and who were added to the 70 caregivers already dispatched to the Caillou last week.

The authorities deplore "this epidemic of unvaccinated", while the vaccination campaign was launched on January 20, long before the introduction of the virus.

Only 30.50% of the population have a complete vaccination schedule and 52% (140,612 people) received the first injection.

Slowing down of vaccination

"The latest figures are not good and we regret that vaccination is slowing down", said on Monday Christopher Gygés, member of the local government at a press conference devoted to the health situation.

While at the start of the epidemic, the number of injections exceeded 5,000 per day, there were hardly more than 683 during the weekend, despite the many vaccination centers available throughout the territory.

A demonstration against the vaccine obligation, voted on September 3 by local elected officials, gathered on Saturday 2,000 people according to the police and 6,000 according to the organizing collective.

Elected Caledonians of all stripes, loyalists and separatists, deplored that the High Commissioner of the Republic authorized this gathering despite the strict confinement, in force until October 4.

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  • Overseas

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  • New Caledonia