For the moment, the Coronavirus does not seem to panic the Ministry of Health in France. This Friday a plane landed at Roissy airport, with 28 French and 36 European nationals on board.
The French will be placed in quarantine in a holiday village in Branville, in Calvados (Normandy), while waiting for medical tests to ensure that there are no contaminated people.
This is the fourth repatriation by plane organized by France since the start of the epidemic in January. In total, around 330 French people returned to France. Among them, 300 were able to return home between February 14 and 16. "The idea is to repatriate people who are still in the red zone", that is to say in the epicenter zone of the epidemic, explained the number of the Ministry of Health during a press conference which was held on Wednesday.
In addition, the new Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, assured this Friday that there was only one Frenchman hospitalized because of Covid-2019. Four cases were still being studied on Tuesday. France has recorded only one death from the Covid-19 since the start of the epidemic, that of an 80-year-old Chinese tourist a week ago at the Bichat hospital in Paris.
Brief history of the various repatriations to France:
Carry-le-Rouet (Bouches-du-Rhône): 225 people were placed in quarantine, from January 31, in a holiday center in Carry-le-Rouet. After two negative tests, 181 left the establishment on February 14, then 44 people two days later. The establishment is now empty.
Aix-en-Provence (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur): 113 people were quarantined at the École nationale supérieure des officiers de pompiers pompiers d'Aix-en-Provence. First 78 people, including 19 French. After two medical screenings, this group was released on February 16. Another group of 35 French people arrived on February 9, in the same school but in another unit, in order to avoid any risk of contamination. This second wave should be released on February 23.
Newsletter - The essentials of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
Branville (Normandy) : 28 French and 36 European nationals were repatriated this Friday and placed in a holiday village in Branville, in Calvados (Normandy). They will stay there for 14 days. Twenty-five members of the Civil Security service provide entry, exit and security for the site. Screening takes the form of a molecular biology test, that is, “a long cotton swab that is inserted deep enough into the nose to recover a few cells. We will analyze the environment in which the cotton swab is bathed, and we will give a result in half a day, "explained Sylvie Behillil of the Pasteur Institute, at the microphone of Europe 1.
The coronavirus has already left more than 2,200 dead and 70,000 infected in China, according to the latest report. For the moment, there are no other French repatriations planned in the short term.