Covid-19: the white plan activated in Hauts-de-France, Normandy and Brittany

Europe 1 with AFP 10:14 p.m., December 10, 2021

White plan extended in Hauts-de-France, activated in Normandy and part of Brittany, the regional health agencies (ARS) activated their emergency plan on Friday in the face of the mounting pressure caused by the epidemic of Covid on hospitals.

The ARS of Haut-de-France has announced the extension of the "white plan" to the entire region because of "the pressure" that the Covid-19 epidemic "places on intensive care beds and conventional hospitalization ".

"Anticipate any risk of saturation" in Hauts-de-France

The ARS had already activated this week the "white plan" in several territories - Lille metropolitan area, Hainaut and Oise - and asked all establishments in the region to open "114 critical care beds and 260 medical beds" additional "on the horizon of mid-December" to "anticipate any risk of saturation at the end of the year".

In Normandy, the ARS also asked all health establishments in the region to activate their white plan from Friday.

Normandy, which is experiencing an increase in the circulation of Covid-19, now has a rate of 248 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants, close to the alert threshold of 250 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

This threshold has already been exceeded in three departments, Eure, Orne and Seine-Maritime, adds the Normandy agency in a press release.

An incidence rate of 306.7 in Brittany

The white plan was also activated in the territory of Haute-Bretagne (Rennes-Redon-Vitré-Fougères) where all public and private health establishments in the "Haute-Bretagne" health territory were asked to reactivate level 2 of their white plan, said ARS Bretagne in a press release. Several establishments had already launched their white plan in the region, in particular in Vannes, Ploërmel, Pays de Morlaix. In Brittany, the incidence rate was 306.7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants on Friday, above the alert threshold.

In Hauts-de-France, the extension to the whole region of the "white plan" - which makes it possible in particular to deprogram operations and reassign personnel to critical care services - is explained by "the rapid development of the epidemic situation "and" the increase in the number of admissions of Covid patients in hospital services ". "This decision concerns all health establishments of medicine, surgery, obstetrics and follow-up care and rehabilitation", explains the ARS of Hauts-de-France in its press release.

As of December 9 in Hauts-de-France, 183 Covid patients were being cared for in critical care beds and 559 in conventional hospitalization, according to the ARS.

The ARS of Ile-de-France, Occitanie, Pays de la Loire, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Corsica and Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur have already announced in recent days the triggering of " plan blanc "in all their hospitals and clinics.