Madagascar: Diego-Suarez, new epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic
Tanambao hospital, in the heart of Diego Suarez, Madagascar, is the reference center responsible for welcoming Covid-19 patients from across the region, on 09/14/2020.
Sarah Tétaud / RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
In Madagascar, the Diana region, at the northern tip of the island, has become the new "epicenter of the epidemic", the country's authorities said a few days ago.
Diego-Suarez (Antsiranana in Malagasy), the capital of the region, has had to partially reconfigure itself in the last two weeks in the face of the surge in cases.
Since the end of July, the city has recorded 19 deaths.
Seventeen of these patients were over 60 years old.
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With our correspondent in Antananarivo,
Sarah Tétaud
It is a hard blow for this coastal city which had been preserved until then.
The regional health directorate speaks of an "
outbreak of cases for two weeks
" and announces a high positivity rate for Covid-19.
Out of ten people tested, six, on average, are positive.
However, on the spot, the lack of means to manage the epidemic once again seems to be lacking.
Faced with the worrying health situation, a group of citizens of Diegolais has just raised more than 3,000 euros to support the city's nursing staff.
“
It's a citizens' initiative, we do not go into politics.
This kitty is to buy masks, visors, gloves and hydroalcoholic gel to allow doctors to have more equipment and to protect themselves, especially, because in these times of Covid-19 in Diego- Suarez, there is a lack of equipment in our hospitals,
”explains Geoffrey Gaspard, one of the initiators of this online fundraiser.
A lack of equipment that denies the Regional Director of Health, Dr Lethicia Yasmine: “
No, I think that was the situation before.
In recent weeks, we can say that the minimum necessary, in terms of protective equipment, has been available at these hospitals
”.
The representative of the State nevertheless recognizes a lack of drugs and tests.
The region is in fact equipped with a single machine - GeneXpert - capable of analyzing, at most, around thirty nasopharyngeal swabs per day.
"
Insufficient
", according to her.
“
We have azithromycin, we have hydroxychloroquine, but we don't have drugs to treat the associated comorbidities.
For example, we don't have drugs to treat diabetes.
In addition, compared to this situation where we are close to the peak, we need more than thirty tests per day because there are many people who present suspected cases
”, underlines Lethicia Yasmine.
The allocation of a second machine to Diego is not on the agenda.
It is the island of Nosy Be, still in the Diana region, which should soon receive a GeneXpert device.
If necessary, since domestic flights have now resumed, the health authorities are betting on sending samples by plane to the capital.
The Diego-Tana link reopened on September 1 with two flights per week.
According to the regional health directorate, 126 people are being treated out of the 1,143 active cases officially recorded across the island, of which 18 are hospitalized.
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Coronavirus
Madagascar