Covid: in Guadeloupe, a "light" confinement which is "relatively well lived"

INTERVIEW

After Martinique and Reunion, Guadeloupe returned to confinement on Wednesday evening with a curfew from 8 p.m., in order to stem a sudden outbreak of Covid-19 contaminations, under the effect of the Delta variant. "The figures have a very unfavorable development and confinement appears to be one of the solutions", defended Thursday, at the microphone of

, Olivier Serva, the LREM deputy of Guadeloupe and president of the overseas delegation to the 'National Assembly.

Travel in the archipelago is limited to a radius of 10 km around the home, and restaurants, cafes and bars are closed again.

On the other hand, some stores remain open with the application of a gauge to limit attendance.

"This is a containment more

than they had known in March 2020," concedes our guest.

"It is more or less accepted, relatively well experienced by the populations," he assures us.

"Obviously, tourism, catering and entertainment professionals suffer a lot. But I believe that is the price to pay to save lives and prevent there from being a more serious health disaster."

A fragile hospital system

While the cases of Covid-19 have increased tenfold in three weeks in Guadeloupe, the authorities' fear mainly concerns hospitals, which could very quickly find themselves at saturation point.

"We are an island territory. Medical evacuations are not easy, especially since the French territory, Martinique and Guyana, are also in very tense situations," recalls Olivier Serva.

"We must be able to count on ourselves and we must be able to do with the medical possibilities on the spot."

>>

Find the political interview every morning at 8.15 am on Europe 1 as well as in replay and podcast here

Very marked mistrust of vaccination

The low vaccination rate on the archipelago - only 18% of the population is fully vaccinated - also raises the question of local reluctance to take vaccines. For Olivier Serva, it is linked to a certain mistrust of the State, in particular because of the recent and tormented history of Guadeloupe.

"The populations of the West Indies, Guadeloupe, Martinique have suffered several things. For example, they have suffered pollution with chlordecone. For years, the state and the economic authorities have indicated that chlordecone was not dangerous for health. In the end, we have polluted land for 600 years ", denounces the elected official.

"Men and women today are dying of prostate cancer, cervical cancer and deformities, even though a few years ago, the state and economic powers told us that this was not dangerous. "

Olivier Serva also evokes "the procrastination of state discourse" on the usefulness of masks at the start of the pandemic, and which, according to him, shook the confidence of these territories in the vaccination campaign.

"A disguised vaccine obligation"

The deputy LREM also doubts that this new turn of the sanitary screw could push the Antilleans to go to be vaccinated more massively.

"I spoke with a bunch of associations which are in the street today. They all say that they have nothing against the vaccine, on the other hand, they have everything against a disguised vaccine obligation", reports t -he.

"We need consultation. We need an explanation. We need adapted measures so that people go to be vaccinated willingly, once we have respected them, that we have put them in confidence. is not the case today, ”he concludes.