Mulhouse (AFP)

The army to the rescue of Mulhouse: six patients from the hospital of the Haut-Rhin metropolis contaminated by the coronavirus will be evacuated on Wednesday by military aircraft, a first while the resuscitation units are already "saturated".

The evacuation of these patients will take place on Wednesday towards Toulon (Var) aboard a four-engine aircraft of the Armed Forces Health Service (SSA) equipped with "six resuscitation cells", Dr Marc Noizet told AFP on Tuesday head of the emergency department of the Haut-Rhin hospital, subjected to a very severe test since the start of the coronavirus crisis.

It is an "exceptional device", "I think it is the first in France, I do not know of any health situation which required us to move (as many) resuscitation patients from start to finish. "Another from the region and from France," said Dr Noizet, whose nine patients have already been evacuated on Tuesday by civil helicopters to nearby hospitals that are less congested.

The decision to involve a military plane was "taken (Monday) evening" by the government, he said, while the Ministry of the Armed Forces had mentioned the deployment of the resuscitation module "Morpheus" to transport "between six and twelve patients ".

- "Unpublished phenomenon" -

Support from the army preceding the next deployment to Alsace, announced Monday evening by Emmanuel Macron, of a military field hospital which, according to the Ministry of the Armed Forces, will have 30 intensive care beds.

The date and place of its installation, however, have not yet been specified.

These decisions are part of a situation of health crisis for the Haut-Rhin: major focus of the disease since a large evangelical gathering in late February in Mulhouse, the department has already recorded 688 cases of coronavirus and 30 deaths.

With "a number of contaminated people which continues to grow every day", the resuscitation capacities of Haut-Rhin hospitals are "saturated" and "very largely occupied in neighboring Bas-Rhin", the two departments of Grand Est the most affected by the epidemic, warned Tuesday morning on France Inter the prefect of the Grand Est Josiane Chevalier.

A finding confirmed by the latest figures from the Regional Health Agency (ARS): with 1,543 people infected with Covid-19 and 51 deaths, the region is one of the most affected in France, where according to the latest assessment, 6,633 cases and 148 deaths have been recorded.

If the Haut-Rhin hospitals are close to rupture, the situation is also complicated in the neighboring Bas-Rhin, with 354 cases of Covid-19 confirmed.

160 are hospitalized in Strasbourg, of which 61 are in intensive care, Christophe Gautier, director general of the University Hospitals of Strasbourg (HUS), told AFP.

Twelve coronavirus-related deaths have grieved the facility, according to Mr. Gautier. "We are facing an unprecedented phenomenon which brings with it a need for significant resuscitation", in particular in "heavy resuscitation", he stressed.

"The toll is heavy" and "alarming," confirmed Ms. Chevalier to AFP. Alsatian hospitals lack beds, masks, respirators and staff, warned the prefect.

"Family and friendly gatherings must stop," she added, the day after President Emmanuel Macron announced a general containment measure for the French population.

"We left on at least two weeks of confinement" in order to "block the circulation of the virus", said Tuesday on France Inter the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.

- "Health war" -

"It is a health war situation," said Ms. Chevalier. Because everywhere else in the Grand Est, the epidemic is gaining ground, especially in Moselle, where 222 people are infected, according to the ARS.

"It's disaster medicine," testified to AFP Dr. Emmanuelle Seris, emergency manager of Sarreguemines (Moselle) itself contaminated by Covid-19 and confined to her home for three days.

A situation further complicated by the sick leave of caregivers who, like Ms. Seris, are infected with a virus whose first symptoms, sometimes close to pharyngitis, can even deceive health professionals, she said. noted.

In Strasbourg, "111 staff members" are currently contaminated, a figure "that will progress", even if "we are not on a massive contamination of our teams", put Christophe Gautier into perspective.

© 2020 AFP