REPORTAGE
The line is always full in front of the Tarascon hospital, a small town with medieval remains located at the western end of the Bouches-du-Rhône. Installed in simple tents, screening tests against the coronavirus are offered to posted workers who often come spontaneously. Some are already engaged on farms in the region. For others, this test is essential to win a contract.
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"It is essential to do the tests if I want to find a job"
This is the case for Luis and Laurent from Portugal and Romania. "I came here to work in agriculture. It is essential to do the screening tests if I want to find a job. It is important because I do not know if I am positive," he explains. in approximate French. "The most important thing is for the family, the health of the children," added his colleague.
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Several clusters have been detected in the south of France over the past month.
In Vaucluse, and especially in Bouches-du-Rhône, within farms, 251 cases have been identified on different sites in the department by the Regional Health Agency (ARS). Most of them are posted workers, these foreigners whom farmers have been impatiently waiting to start harvesting fruit and vegetables.
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5% of positive cases
All positive cases are reported to Health Insurance to trace contacts and suggest isolation. An essential protocol for controlling the clusters reported in around fifty farms. "These people live in large numbers in collective housing with a certain promiscuity," explains Dr. Charlet on the spot. "In the transmission of the virus is done quite easily. Given the multiplicity of cases and exploitations concerned, it appeared necessary for the prefectural authority and the ARS to launch massive screenings to try to stop the transmission."
The signals seem to be more and more positive according to the ARS, even if 5% of the cases detected here in recent weeks have been positive. This remains more than the national average, even if the transmission mainly affects posted workers and their families with very little impact on the local population.