Metz (AFP)
The first evacuation carried out by a military helicopter with two patients seriously affected by the coronavirus, transported from Metz to Germany, was conducted Saturday morning as part of Operation Resilience, noted an AFP photographer.
The helicopter, an NH90 from the 1st combat helicopter regiment of Phalsbourg (Moselle), landed in the parking lot of the Metz exhibition center, below the civilian hospital at 9:30 a.m. before taking off again at around 10:20 a.m.
"Army Cayman helicopters will support several patients with Covid-19" from Metz to Germany, tweeted the Minister of the Armies Florence Parly.
According to François Braun, head of the emergency service of the regional hospital center (CHR) of Metz, interviewed by AFP, a new rotation to Germany of a military helicopter, with two other patients, will "probably" be carried out Sunday in early afternoon.
Other transfers of patients should be decided gradually, according to the evolution of the situation, said the doctor.
Since the start of the epidemic, "a dozen" of Covid-19 patients have also been transported by ambulances to German hospitals, he said.
Also last week, two coronavirus patients had been helicoptered to Homburg (western Germany) by German civilian medical devices.
Also on Twitter, the French Minister for the Armed Forces indicated that she met on Friday with her German counterpart Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer "in order to define and specify the modalities" of the operation carried out on Saturday morning, thanking "deeply our German friends for their support and solidarity "
"We all share one goal: to defeat the Covid-19," said Florence Parly.
© 2020 AFP