Due to the resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic caused by the delta variant, the French authorities ordered a quarantine from midnight Friday on the Caribbean island of Martinique and on the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, where Prime Minister Jean Castix said the situation. It became dramatic because of the vaccination.
The government already declared a state of emergency in the French Antilles on Wednesday night, allowing local authorities to restrict the free movement of people. While on the islands of Guadeloupe, Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy, a night curfew was imposed again, in Martinique, the province announced a general quarantine from midnight Friday for at least three weeks.
In the Caribbean, the number of infected people per 100,000 people rose from 280 last week to more than a thousand in a few days, but the vaccination rate is barely 19%, while more than three-quarters of adults in Europe have taken their first dose. of the coronavirus vaccine. 52 percent of the total population has already received both doses.
“Control of the virus is also urgent because the population of Martinique is less immunized, and older in general, that is, more at risk than residents of regions with higher vaccination rates,” the authorities recalled.
From Martinique, where hospitals filled with coronavirus overnight, three patients were flown to Paris by medical plane on Saturday, and about 40-50 military personnel (nurses, doctors and anesthesiologists) are arriving on the island in the next few days to help take care of the hospital Benjamin Jarrell, director Fort de France University Hospital, the island’s headquarters.
On Reunion Island, where the number of daily cases has also jumped and the positive test rate is 10 percent, but only a third of the population has applied for vaccinations so far, a partial quarantine has been in place for at least two weeks, reinforced by a curfew from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., he indicated. To Jacques Pelant, Governor of the Island. From 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. Monday to Saturday you are only allowed to leave the property within a radius of 10 km, on Sundays the distance is reduced to 5 km, only local residents can go to work and shop only, wearing a mask. Mandatory everywhere.
The situation is more favorable in the European part of France, but the infection level has also increased there, especially in the tourist areas of the Atlantic coast and on the French Riviera, where the virus is spread mainly among young people. Therefore, in some resorts, provinces have again made the wearing of masks mandatory in public places and restricted spontaneous outdoor parties in the evenings.
While there will again be moves in Paris on Saturday against extending the use of Covid certification and making vaccination mandatory for health and social workers, the government continues to seek to mitigate the effects of the fourth wave by encouraging vaccination.
“The difference between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated population is clear and visible,” Prime Minister Jan Castix said on Friday.
On Thursday, 25,000 new nights were reported across the country, slightly less than in previous days, but the daily number of cases is now more than 20,000 in the second week, up from the tenth two weeks ago. After a decline of more than two months in hospitals, indicators are slowly starting to rise. There are currently 7,200 infected people receiving care in hospital, 1,015 of whom are in the intensive care unit, compared to 6,000 at the height of the third wave in April.
(MTI)
