Pas-de-Calais begins its first weekend of containment after the government's decision on Thursday.

For the prefect of the department, Louis Lefranc, guest of Europe 1 on Saturday, this decision was "absolutely" essential because of the evolution of the epidemic.

Without "this effort in March, I think we would move towards containment in April," he said.

INTERVIEW

Was it necessary to confine Pas-de-Calais during the weekends?

For Louis Lefranc, prefect of the department, the decision was "absolutely" essential in view of the circulation of the Covid.

Faced with a very high incidence, preventing travel from Saturday 6 a.m. to Sunday 6 p.m. as much as possible appears to be, according to him, the only possibility to avoid total re-containment in the weeks to come.

While it intends to implement the necessary means to enforce the measures, particularly in heavily frequented areas, it also relies on the good citizenship of Pas-de-Calaisiens.

Hospitals "on the verge of breaking point"

What is "absolutely" no doubt, according to Louis Lefranc, is that the decision taken Thursday to confine Pas-de-Calais for four weekends is the right one.

At the microphone of Europe 1, he lists several reasons.

"The first is a congestion rate in hospital admissions which is very high. Unfortunately 90% of hospitals have their beds occupied and 60% of them are people with Covid".

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This means that hospitals are "on the verge of breaking point".

A situation which is explained by "a very high incidence rate, the second at the national level, just after the Alpes-Maritimes", he explains.

A circulation caused in particular by a high rate of penetration of the variants.

Added to this is the fatigue of the teams, with a pandemic that has lasted for a long time.

Faced with this observation, partial confinement is "the margin" which will allow "to avoid transfers of patients outside the department", affirms the prefect.

The risk of total containment in April

The other risk is that without these measures the situation will deteriorate further.

Also, if the inhabitants of the department "do not make this effort in March, I think we would move towards confinement in April," said Louis Lefranc.

The prefect considers, however, that this is not inevitable thanks to this decision concerning weekends as well as to its measures relating to "rules of health protection, distancing, counting and gauge" in stores, set at one customer per 10 m². 

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To ensure proper compliance with the prefectural decree, an "enlarged device" of the police is put in place.

"I asked them to ensure that the retail spaces strictly comply with the rules of the sanitary protocol", explains Louis Lefranc.

To this decree, it adds recommendations concerning the limitation of travel, in particular towards Dunkirk, in the North, where the incidence has exploded with more than 1,000 cases per 100,000.

The "bet of confidence" 

For this, he believes in the civic spirit of the inhabitants and recalls that "the population of Pas-de-Calais is very respectful of the regulations, virtuous".

He also stresses that in the communes between Saint-Omer and Boulogne "the population has become aware of the seriousness of the problem", which has enabled the incidence to drop.

Louis Lefranc therefore considers making the "bet of confidence" to get out of the current situation of the department and reverse the epidemic curves.