Paris (AFP)

Confined before the rest of the population, retirement homes are not spared from the coronavirus, which is already hitting nursing homes across the country, making professionals in the sector fear the worst.

Twelve deaths in a nursing home in Doubs, several in Hérault, infectious foci in Vienna and in Paris ... Despite strict confinement, accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people are not immune to Covid-19, particularly virulent among their residents.

"The average age there is over 85 years, the consequences could be dramatic", worried already in early March Florence Arnaiz-Maumé.

The Ehpad had then begun to barricade themselves: restricted visits, temperature measurement, hydroalcoholic gel and masks ... "Barrier measures" which were to "block the entry of the virus", explained the general delegate of the federation of the houses of private retreat (Synerpa).

Three weeks later, the locks broke. In Thise, near Besançon, 12 residents have died since the detection of the first cases on March 5.

All presented the symptoms of the coronavirus, but "it is difficult to know if these deaths are linked (to the epidemic) because, like everywhere in France, one does not detect any more systematically the new cases", observes a spokesperson of this establishment.

"The first two cases are tested, and once the presence of Covid-19 is confirmed, we no longer do any tests," confirms Olivier Obrecht, deputy director general of ARS Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.

The situation is far from isolated: out of the 400 nursing homes in the region, "a certain number observe people with symptoms of the Covid-19 type", he adds.

The balance sheet should therefore further increase and, for lack of tests, "the number of deaths will only be known once the epidemic is behind us".

- "Isolation in room" -

In the meantime, the same tragedy has taken place in Mauguio, near Montpellier, where the local press reports 5 deaths since March 10, as well as fifty suspected cases among residents and a handful of staff tested positive.

Another infectious focus has broken out in La Puye, not far from Poitiers, where ARS Aquitaine lists 25 caregivers and 11 contaminated residents, including an 85-year-old woman who died on March 15. In the neighboring convent, five nuns from the Daughters of the Cross congregation were also tested positive for coronavirus.

Two other cases were detected in nursing homes in the region, one in Vienne, the other in Angoulême (Charente), specifies the ARS.

Paris is not immune either: in an establishment in the east of the capital, a resident tested positive during a hospitalization in mid-March and six others "present signs of infection", for the moment without gravity.

To avoid the spread of the virus, these suspected cases are the subject of "room isolation for 14 days".

"The greatest vigilance is required", justifies Pascal Champvert, president of the association of directors of retirement homes (AD-PA).

"We are not today in a situation of epidemic peak in establishments," he assures, estimating that "what will make it possible to avoid it, is that we have masks in the duration and in number sufficient".

A request however formulated in a more alarmist tone in a letter sent Friday to the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, by the main federations of the sector (FHF, Fehap, Synerpa, AD-PA ...).

The epidemic "could result in more than 100,000 deaths in the event of a generalization that we dare not imagine" but "which is however not excluded, in the current state of our organization", they write .

However, Mr. Champvert considers that "this assessment will not be achieved if the State continues to listen to professionals".

Of which note: Saturday, Mr. Véran indicated that "more than 250 million masks" had been ordered and would be delivered "progressively", in priority to health personnel and professionals working with the elderly.

© 2020 AFP