Olivier Véran at La Timone hospital in Marseille, September 25, 2020. -
Christophe Simon / AP / SIPA
Olivier Véran was traveling to Marseille this Friday while strict measures to fight against the coronavirus epidemic were announced this week.
The Minister of Health defended these measures which aroused a great deal of hostility.
"I am perfectly aware that some of the measures are debated (...), raise concerns, questions, even anger", assured Olivier Véran during a press conference at the public hospital of Timone.
"These measures are necessary, they are temporary but they are not arbitrary".
Demonstration of traders
The government has placed Marseille, which holds the record for metropolitan France for the highest incidence rate (at 281 per 100,000 according to the authorities), in "maximum alert zone" and announced for the Aix-Marseille metropolis the total closure bars and restaurants for 15 days from Saturday.
These announcements immediately caused an uproar among local elected officials from all sides of the region, and among restaurateurs and cafetiers.
Friday morning, several hundred of them, supported by many elected officials, gathered in front of the Marseille commercial court.
At the beginning of the afternoon, they were still a hundred in front of La Timone during Olivier Véran's visit, AFP journalists noted.
Beds occupied at the expense of other patients?
Local elected officials, including regional president Renaud Muselier (LR), who announced his intention to take legal action against the prefectural decree imposing the closure of bars and restaurants, have been challenging the measures by highlighting an improvement, for a few days. , of the situation in the department.
Until the situation improves on its own, "we risk having to take even stronger measures than those we have just announced", the Minister replied.
The improvement of the situation, also reacted Professor Lionel Velly, resuscitator of Timone, "we do not see it at all for the moment, we have 30 patients per week".
In Marseille, detailed Olivier Véran after a visit to an intensive care unit, it is “one in two beds (…) which is not available for other patients”.
"We can not take the risk that the Marseillais can not follow their treatment against cancer, that they can not be operated", assured Olivier Véran.
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Covid 19
Marseilles
Olivier Véran
Coronavirus