Strasbourg (AFP)
From Corsica to French Guiana, from the Hautes-Alpes to Normandy and Ile-de-France, cases of coronavirus infections multiplied on Thursday throughout France among the faithful who had participated in a large evangelical gathering in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin) in February.
This week of fasting and prayer, organized by the Christian Open Door, one of the largest Protestant evangelical churches in France, brought together around 2,000 people from all over France, including the overseas departments and neighboring countries, in Mulhouse from 17 to February 24. Thirty have been contaminated, according to a first count.
On Wednesday, the Haut-Rhin prefecture had announced the contamination of 10 people in the department in connection with this event, calling on participants to be vigilant and to contact center 15 in the event of symptoms.
On Thursday, what the prefecture feared became reality, with cases identified among church believers returning to many areas, some of which have been spared the epidemic so far.
In Guyana, the prefect announced five first cases, in Saint-Laurent du Maroni, three teachers, a doctor from the hospital center and a child. The five infected people had gone to metropolitan France to participate in this Lenten week in Mulhouse.
According to the communications officer of the Mulhouse church, Nathalie Schnoebelen, interviewed by AFP, the pastor of the Christian Open Door church in Guyana accompanied by "a small team" came to participate in the rally.
In Paris, an RATP employee working at a station on line 6 of the metro, infected with the coronavirus, would also have participated in this rally, according to the CGT-RATP.
- 300 children -
The only two regions of mainland France still spared the new coronavirus were also affected Thursday, with three cases in Corsican pensioners and one in a 73-year-old woman from Center-Val-de-Loire. All had taken part in the Lenten week of Mulhouse.
In Briançon (Hautes-Alpes), three faithful returning from Mulhouse were also infected, while at the other end of France, in the Manche, three others were taken care of by the Saint-Jean Hospital Center Oh.
In the south-west, a faithful couple tested positive at Agen hospital, the man confined to his home and his wife transferred to the Bordeaux University Hospital.
Participation in this Lenten Week, organized for 25 years, did not require prior registration, which complicates the identification of potential patients.
"People come from all over the French-speaking world, from Guyana, the Antilles, neighboring countries," Nathalie Schnoebelen, who also announces cases among Swiss faithful, told AFP when the Swiss Confederation had its first death on Thursday. related to coronavirus.
"We have no feedback from the Germans and the Belgians," added Ms. Schnoebelen. About 300 children she said participated in this week of celebrations.
"For the least attended meetings, we were a good thousand people, for the most attended 2,000 to 2,500 people", had told Wednesday AFP Dr Jonathan Peterschmitt, son of the pastor of this church, himself contaminated thus only two members of his family.
"There is a lot of sharing, it is a context conducive to contamination," had judged a posteriori this general practitioner, confined to his home in the Haut-Rhin with his wife and four children.
"When we pray together, we can hold hands," adds Ms. Schnoebelen, stressing that at that time, precautions related to the virus were not yet in order.
On social networks, Pastor Samuel Peterschmitt said he was "sorry" about the link established between these celebrations and contamination.
Tuesday evening, the worship of this church, founded in 1966 by a Mennonite pastor, father of Samuel Peterschmitt, was broadcast only on the internet.
Dynamic and very active on the internet, The Christian Open Door opened in 2015 in Mulhouse a place of worship that can accommodate more than 2,000 faithful, on the model of the "megachurch" built by certain evangelical currents in the United States.
© 2020 AFP