Paris (AFP)

While the increase in contamination due to the Delta variant has been concentrated in recent weeks in metropolitan France, mainly in tourist areas - the Atlantic coast and the Mediterranean coast - the government also considers the epidemic situation "worrying" in the East and among young people. .

The first three patients hospitalized for Covid-19 in Martinique, where services are saturated, will be transferred to Paris on Saturday by a medical flight, confirmed Thursday to AFP Benjamin Garel, director of the CHU of Fort-de-France.

On the eve of new demonstrations which promise to be larger than those of last Saturday (161,000 people) against the extension of the health pass and compulsory vaccination, the government continues to want to convince.

Since Wednesday, three other islands of the French Antilles (Guadeloupe, Saint-Martin, 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" to 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 positive cases last week to 3,537 cases, according to the prefecture, and the incidence rate from 280 cases to 995 per 100,000 inhabitants.

"There is really a clear difference, visible between the populations who get vaccinated and those who do not get vaccinated," said Jean Castex.

# photo2

Victim of the Delta variant and very little vaccinated, Reunion is returning to partial confinement during the day this weekend, for two weeks, reinforced by a strict curfew from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m., a first since the confinement of spring 2020.

On the island, the incidence rate reaches 350 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and the positivity rate stands at nearly 10%, according to local authorities.

In France, 1,015 patients ill with a severe form of Covid-19 were treated Thursday in critical care services against 992 on Wednesday, while the daily number of new infections remained above 25,000.

The number of hospitalizations has also increased slightly, with 7,236 patients Thursday against 7,208 Wednesday and 501 new admissions.

© 2021 AFP