"The situation continues to worsen" in the Grand-Est, warns the regional health agency. On Monday, 2,348 people were hospitalized in the region because of Covid-19, including 526 in intensive care. Since the start of the epidemic, 335 people have died in the Grand-Est.
With 46 more people in intensive care in 24 hours, the pressure on hospitals therefore continues to increase. To cope with this, the ARS points out that the capacity for intensive care has been doubled, for a total of 900 beds.
Additional places
At the Strasbourg University Hospital, out of 140 people arriving at the emergency room every day, 80% test positive for Covid-19, and 40% of these must be hospitalized. For some, in intensive care.
Anticipating this influx, the hospital went from 80-100 places in intensive care to 163. A number of beds which will rise to 173 this Tuesday evening, including 132 reserved for patients screened positive. "We must not forget the other activities of the CHU," says Christophe Gautier, the director. We also have a big activity of transplants. "
"As soon as a bed becomes empty, it is occupied"
"For the past three weeks, we have been in the conversion phase to cope with the epidemic," describes the director of the CHU. A fortnight ago, we ordered respirators, which are starting to be delivered. ” Equipment that would theoretically further increase resuscitation capacity, which would require mobilizing more staff.
Despite the exceptional effort, hospitals are reaching certain limits. "We still have a lot of admissions, and a lot of admissions that require resuscitation," says Doctor Jean-François Cerfon, head of one of the resuscitation teams at Colmar hospital. As soon as one bed becomes empty, it is occupied. Here too, the resuscitation capacity had been increased from 30 to 40 beds.
Transfers to Germany and Brittany
In Colmar, faced with this saturation, "more than fifteen patients have been transferred since the beginning of the epidemic," says Dr. Cerfon. Six patients from Mulhouse and Colmar were again evacuated on Tuesday by a military flight to the hospitals of Brest and Quimper. Others had been welcomed in Marseille and Toulon last week.
Patients were also transported by helicopter to Nancy, Saint-Dizier or Verdun. And since this weekend, patients have been transferred to Germany. Especially in Mannheim and Freiburg im Breisgau (around 30 km from Colmar). "We are coping and we have increased our reception capacities but we need transfers", agrees Christophe Gautier, the director of the CHU of Strasbourg. On Wednesday, a medical TGV has to evacuate 30 patients from Colmar and Mulhouse, where a military hospital has also been set up.
Serious cases among caregivers
Faced with the challenge of the growing number of patients, caregivers are on the front line. “We systematically screen our staff as soon as they show symptoms. And if they are positive, they go straight home. No positive screened staff work, ”said the director of the Strasbourg CHU. Out of 12,500 employees, 253 tested positive. For now, a severe case among caregivers has required his passage in intensive care, before his recovery. In Colmar, a doctor in charge of a resuscitation unit was still on Tuesday in a worrying state.
Monday, we learned of the death of three doctors with coronavirus in the Grand-Est region: a general practitioner in Moselle, an obstetrician gynecologist in Mulhouse and a general practitioner in Colmar.
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