Cayenne (AFP)

New French Prime Minister Jean Castex made an eight-hour lightning visit to French Guiana, a French territory in South America, on Sunday, where an outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic threatens the fragile local health system.

During this first visit to a French overseas territory since taking office last week, Mr. Castex said "to understand the impatience of the Guyanese population", still subject to a "state of health emergency" which was lifted in mainland France, and where certain areas are again subject to containment.

Guyana, a territory of 300,000 inhabitants large like Portugal, counted on Sunday 6,102 confirmed coronavirus cases and 26 deaths in total. A high rate of patients largely attributed to proximity to Brazil, the epicenter of the epidemic in South America.

A field hospital has also been set up at the Cayenne hospital, the capital of Guyana, to receive patients other than those affected by Covid-19.

- Stabilization -

During his brief stay, Mr. Castex chained the charge of visits to sites dedicated to the fight against the epidemic. However, he noted that "the epidemiological situation seems to be improving, and that is a good thing".

The "crisis director" for Guyana, Patrice Latron, told AFP that "it is probably thanks to curfew measures that the situation has stabilized, especially in western Guyana and on the coast "but" the center of gravity of the epidemic is shifting towards the west, towards the Maroni river "which marks the border with Suriname.

"The mobilization of the state and all public services is not unrelated to this" overall improvement situation, even if "probably everything was not perfect," admitted the head of government, who before becoming Prime Minister organized the exit from the confinement of France.

"Yet you will have to remain vigilant," he warned, while in mainland France, a relaxation in the respect of barrier gestures is observed, with in particular a large electro concert in Nice Saturday without any physical distancing.

Accompanied by the ministers Sébastien Lecornu (Overseas) and Olivier Véran (Health), Mr. Castex, masked face, visited the hospital of Cayenne and expressed "the immense gratitude" of the Nation to some 150 staff members.

A nurse called out to him: "Guyana is forty years late", "we want even more help, don't stay a day" only.

Several medical evacuations of patients have been carried out towards the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, in the Antilles, but the lack of places in the Antillean hospitals is also starting to be felt.

© 2020 AFP