Paris (AFP)

"Dramatic" situation overseas with Reunion and Martinique reconfigured, transfer of patients to Paris, and concerns in metropolitan France where the Delta variant is blazing on vacation spots: the authorities are under tension, on the eve of new antipass demonstrations sanitary.

Little vaccinated and showing an incidence of 350 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants, Reunion Island returns 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.

"I think the authorities are forced to take drastic measures ... It's a shame to come to this, but ... It's our fault," said a passerby questioned by AFP in the streets from Fort-de-France, Roger, while only 15% of the population of the West Indian island is vaccinated.

The announcement of the new restrictions disappointed many tourists: "We were asked to be vaccinated to come to the island already. And there, again, we are confined to a radius of 10 km", regretted Christelle, a metropolitan on vacation and who is afraid of "enjoying much less".

The situation has deteriorated in recent days in a number of French overseas territories, described Thursday as "dramatic" by the Prime Minister, Jean Castex.

Since Wednesday, Guadeloupe, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélémy have come to Reunion and Martinique, already in a state of health emergency since July 13.

# photo2

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.

The first three patients hospitalized due to Covid-19 in Martinique, where hospital services are saturated, must be transferred to Paris on Saturday by a medical flight.

The Ministry of the Armed Forces also announced on Friday that it was going to deploy a team of around fifty soldiers from the Army Health Service and the Army Medical Regiment to the CHU of Fort-de-France.

# photo3

"Equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment, they will make it possible to operate 5 resuscitation beds from August 3, supplemented by 5 additional beds before the end of next week", indicate the military authorities.

- Saturday events -

In metropolitan France, where the incidence rate is soaring especially in tourist departments, the prefect of Savoy announced on Friday the return of the obligation to wear a mask outdoors in areas with "high traffic", a measure that had already been taken in Haute-Savoie, as well as in the coastal towns of Loire-Atlantique, Vendée, Charente-Maritime, Gironde, Landes or Pyrénées-Atlantiques.

# photo4

In parallel, the contemptors of the health pass must again be counted, Saturday, during processions: more than 150,000 demonstrators are expected throughout the territory, including more than 10,000 in Paris, according to the authorities.

Already applied in cultural and leisure venues since July 21, the extension of the pass for cafes, fairs, exhibitions, restaurants and trains is scheduled for August 9.

In the meantime, the Constitutional Council will render its decision on the law on August 5.

Even before the adoption of these measures, their simple announcement by President Emmanuel Macron on July 12 gave a boost to the vaccination campaign: four million first-time injections were carried out over the last 15 days, against 6 million between June 11 and July 12.

More than 350,000 first doses are now injected daily, a figure that has been rising steadily since the presidential address.

# photo5

France exceeded the threshold of 50% of its fully vaccinated population on Tuesday evening, a level however still far from the collective immunity threshold estimated at around 90% with the new Delta variant.

© 2021 AFP