Marseilles (AFP)

After Corsica, the "white plan" was activated in the hospitals of another large tourist region, Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur, to allow healthcare establishments to cope with a significant increase in hospitalizations, a we learned from the Regional Health Agency on Wednesday.

In one week, "and in the middle of a period of leave for caregivers as well as for holidaymakers" in this region of south-eastern France, "hospitalizations for Covid have increased by 56%", explained the ARS to AFP.

In critical care, "this increase reaches 46%".

The incidence rate in the region, which receives 30 million visitors each year and particularly in summer, also increased sharply in one week, reaching 562 per 100,000 against 404 per 100,000 at the end of July.

In Marseille on Wednesday, 109 Covid patients were hospitalized in the public assistance services of Marseille hospitals (AP-HM), including 32 in intensive care, occupying "all of the available sheave beds".

The "white plan" allows "to have a legislative framework to recall caregivers on leave or to deprogram operations", the AP-HM told AFP, adding that it has not yet needed to resort to these measures , in particular because "few operations are programmed in August".

Vaccination against Covid-19 on January 5, 2021 at La Timone hospital in Marseille Christophe SIMON AFP / Archives

But "the positivity rate is very high, the signs are not good and we have a lot of concerns over the coming weeks," explained the AP-HM.

"Vaccination hubs" for caregivers and the public open from Wednesday in the halls of the North hospital in Marseille and Timone.

"It goes up extremely quickly", for his part described to AFP a spokesperson for the Sainte-Musse hospital in Toulon, referring to the hospitalizations.

Although the establishment does not resort to deprogramming, it has testified to great difficulty in finding staff.

On Tuesday, Corsica was the first metropolitan region to announce the launch of the "white plan" in its hospitals.

This step makes it possible to mobilize all health personnel in order to increase the number of intensive care and hospitalization beds for Covid patients.

The Bastia University Hospital specified in a press release that it had known "for 10 days a significant increase in the activity of taking care of patients with" Covid-19, with a very marked increase in emergency room visits last weekend, in full crossover of summer visitors between July and August.

A beach in Sagone, Corsica, July 25, 2021 Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA AFP / Archives

While Martinique has been reconfigured since Friday and Guadeloupe is preparing to be so from Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Jean Castex chaired a meeting of the Interministerial Crisis Unit on Tuesday, deciding the deployment of 10 resuscitation beds additional in the West Indies by the army health service (SSA) from mid-August, according to Matignon.

© 2021 AFP