- Between March 21 and March 27, deaths jumped + 63% in Seine-Saint-Denis compared to the previous week. Much more than in the other departments of Ile-de-France.
- Several reasons explain this high mortality, in particular an easier circulation of the virus in this very dense department and many inhabitants of 93 continue to go to work as "nursing assistants, home helpers or workers in nursing homes".
- The hypothesis of non-compliance with confinement is swept aside by the ARS Ile-de-France and the prefect of the department emphasizes that the rules of confinement are, "as elsewhere, generally well respected".
The poorest department in mainland France, Seine-Saint-Denis has been paying a heavy price since the start of the coronavirus epidemic. The authorities published this Friday the INSEE provisional figures on mortality and it jumped 63% in one week in the 93. So much so that the funeral directors say they are "overwhelmed" and claim "to have never seen that "even during the heat wave of 2003.
What do the numbers say?
Several French departments strongly affected by the pandemic recorded a sharp increase in mortality, according to provisional figures from INSEE. But in Seine-Saint-Denis, it's a real explosion: between March 21 and March 27, deaths jumped + 63% compared to the previous week. An "exceptional" level, highlighted Thursday evening by the Director General of Health Jérôme Salomon. For comparison, the increase reached 32% in Paris and 47% in the neighboring department of Val-d'Oise.
Asked by AFP, the health management said "have no explanation immediately" as for these figures, all the more surprising since the number of deaths in hospital is lower in Seine-Saint -Denis than in the other territories of Ile-de-France. A hiatus that the transfer of patients to other hospitals cannot explain.
The funeral directors contacted by AFP mention "numerous cases of deaths at home and in retirement homes". "We are all completely overwhelmed, I have never seen that!" It's catastrophic. Even the heat wave of 2003, it is incomparable ”, testifies a boss of the sector.
How to explain this "excess mortality"?
"In Seine-Saint-Denis, there are more deaths because there are more contaminated, quite simply," says Frédéric Adnet, head of Samu 93. In the department of 1.6 million inhabitants, one of the densest in France, "the virus circulates much more easily than elsewhere," he adds.
"Confinement is complex in disadvantaged areas like ours, where there are many large families in small dwellings, homes of migrant workers, shantytowns," said the emergency room doctor. "We know that infectious diseases affect the most precarious harder, because transmission is easier, and that they are more difficult to follow," he continues.
The same goes for the doctors at "Place santé", an associative health center located in the heart of the city of Francs-Moisins in Saint-Denis. "The impression that we have is that the epidemic will be exacerbated in working-class neighborhoods where health inequalities already exist," says center coordinator, Gwenaëlle Ferré, who counts "several homes with several cases »Of coronavirus.
She also observes that, in the districts, many inhabitants must continue to go to work, because of their profession or their precarious status. "In our patient base, there are many caregivers, home helpers and nursing home workers", who will be "very exposed", explains the coordinator. Without counting "the cashiers, the delivery men".
Could a breach of containment be the cause?
A hypothesis swept away by the ARS Ile-de-France: "The people who went into intensive care this week, these are people who contracted the disease before confinement", explains the regional health agency, tired of polemic.
In the department, the rules of confinement are, "as elsewhere, generally well respected", also wanted to emphasize this week the prefect of 93, Georges-François Leclerc, welcoming the "spirit of responsibility" of the inhabitants.
Are certain precarious populations deprived of access to care?
The PS president of the departmental council, Stéphane Troussel, points to “a weaker health system that weighs on access to care” and the fact that there are “fewer doctors and fewer intensive care beds” in the 93.
Our file on the coronavirus
But for the chief of the Samu, Frédéric Adnet, the explanation for the excess mortality is not there. According to him, the inhabitants of Seine-Saint-Denis, even the most precarious, do not hesitate to seek help and "are treated as elsewhere" in France. "Everyone calls the 15th, as soon as people have trouble breathing they call. For life-threatening illnesses, people go to the hospital, ”he says.
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