"Dramatic situation": Reunion and Martinique reconfigured, the army as reinforcements
Hermitage beach in Saint-Gilles in Reunion Island during confinement, March 19, 2020. AFP - RICHARD BOUHET
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Reunion and Martinique are preparing to reconfine in the face of the meteoric rise in Covid-19 cases.
A "
dramatic
"
situation
according to Jean Castex.
The French Prime Minister regrets the "
resistant to vaccination
".
The first three patients will be transferred from Fort-de-France to Paris on Saturday.
The first three patients hospitalized due to Covid-19 in Martinique, where hospital services are saturated, will be transferred to Paris on Saturday by a medical flight.
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This Thursday, the government declared "a
state of health emergency in a number of overseas territories where the situation is dramatic because they are reluctant to vaccination
."
"
Vaccination is absolutely essential
", hammered Prime Minister Jean Castex in front of elected officials of Lot-et-Garonne at the town hall of Agen, evoking the countries which "
would dream of being vaccinated but which do not have access to it and where the pandemic is wreaking havoc
”.
"
Nothing beats proof by example,
" he added.
Since Wednesday, Guadeloupe, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélémy have come to Reunion and Martinique which had already been in a state of health emergency since July 13.
Faced with this situation, the army will send "around
40 to 50 military medical specialists (doctors, nurses, resuscitators, etc.) and logisticians
" in Martinique, "
in support of the CHU of Fort-de-France in the next few days,
”she said.
The number of positive cases rose from 2,241 last week to 3,537, according to the prefecture, and the incidence rate from 280 cases to 995 per 100,000 inhabitants.
►
To read also: Coronavirus: impact on the economy of overseas territories
"
Never known epidemic runaway until now
"
"
There is really a clear difference, visible between the populations who get vaccinated and those who do not get vaccinated
", insisted Jean Castex. Victim of the Delta variant and very little vaccinated, Reunion is returning to partial confinement during the day "
from this weekend
", for two weeks, "
reinforced by a strict curfew from 6:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.
" A first since the containment of spring 2020, announced Thursday the prefect of Reunion Jacques Billant. "
From 5:00 am to 6:00 pm, travel is limited to a radius of 10 km around his home from Monday to Saturday
" and this radius is "
lowered to 5 km on Sunday,
" said the prefect.
On the island, the incidence rate reached 350 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and the positivity rate "
climbs to nearly 10%
", further detailed Jacques Billant.
According to him, "
this strong deterioration is the forerunner of an epidemic runaway that we have never known until now
".
The director general of the ARS, the Regional Health Agency Martine Ladoucette regretted the low vaccination on the island where barely three out of 10 people are fully vaccinated against more than 5 out of 10 nationally.
►
To read also: Guyana: "the health situation is deteriorating markedly" in a poorly vaccinated population
Martinicans "
less immune
"
Same problem in Martinique where the vaccination campaign does not take off and where barely 15% of Martinicans are fully vaccinated.
Containment will be put in place from this Friday 7 p.m. (11 p.m. UT, Saturday 1 hour in Paris) for a period of at least three weeks.
"
Curbing the virus appears all the more urgent as the population of Martinique is less immune, generally older, and therefore more fragile than that of regions where Covid-19 has circulated more and where the vaccination rate is higher
", said underlined the prefect of Martinique Stanislas Cazelles during a press conference.
Listen to the reaction of Martinicans to the reconfinement this Friday, July 30
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