Monday May 11, Mayotte will be the only department in France that will not begin its deconfinement process. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced it on Monday May 4 before senators and confirmed it on Thursday May 7 during his joint press conference with six ministers.
Read also: Coronavirus: what to remember from the latest announcements from Edouard Philippe before the deconfinement of May 11
"Additional means" announced by the Minister of Overseas
Annick Girardin, Minister for Overseas France, was not invited to this press conference. It was through a Facebook Live on the Overseas Channel the 1st that she announced this Friday, May 8, the granting of " additional means " to the archipelago located in the Indian Ocean. " We need personnel and equipment, " demanded Mayotte ARS director Dominique Voynet on Thursday, May 7.
Read also: In Mayotte, where confinement exacerbates difficulties, the army delivers food
A “field hospital ” will therefore be installed in Mayotte, on the model of the one that had been mobilized in Mulhouse. On May 7, Dominique Voynet mentioned the arrival of one of the “ modules ” of the field hospital of the army health service “ around May 15 ”. " Additional live health forces " of the order of " 100 people " will also be sent to Mayotte.
The ultra-marine territory most affected by the pandemic
These human and material resources must help the archipelago to get out of the critical situation in which it is currently. 890 cases of coronavirus and 11 deaths have been reported there for 270,000 inhabitants. If in Mayotte, the virus is still circulating "actively" , the epidemic is considered "under control" in all other ultra-marine territories, much less affected by the pandemic.
Read also: Overseas: compulsory "fortnight" for people coming from mainland France
By way of comparison, in Guyana, another overseas territory that has been particularly watched since the start of the crisis, only one person died and 141 were contaminated out of 290,000 inhabitants ... Mayotte should soon have more deaths than in Guadeloupe (153 cases, 13 deaths) and Martinique (183 cases, 14 deaths). Without even mentioning Wallis and Futuna: 0 cases, 0 deaths.
Fear of an "epidemic conflagration"
" Every two or three days, there is a doubling of the number of cases ", due in part to the increase in tests carried out by the ARS, insisted Dominique Voynet during his press briefing on May 7. "We are the French department that may be facing an epidemic conflagration , " also said the director of the ARS in Mayotte.
Read also: Mayotte: "Every two or three days, there is a doubling of the number of cases" of Coronavirus
Dominique Voynet believes that the archipelago " needs the measures deployed in Alsace two months ago " to fight against the coronavirus. Conversely, in an interview with Marianne , the deputy LR Mansour Kamardine pleaded for a deconfinement at the same time as the rest of France, "on condition of massively distributing masks and multiplying" the tests.
Aggravating factors
In Mayotte, the situation is worsened by the dengue epidemic which is currently raging on the archipelago and has infected nearly 3,700 inhabitants since the beginning of the year. From mid-April, Overseas Minister Annick Girardin also recognized the existence of "hunger problems" overseas, and in particular in Mayotte, where 82% of the population lives below the poverty line.
In addition, local authorities find it extremely difficult to enforce the ban on assemblies. "There are people in the mosques", "crowds at the funeral," laments Dominique Voynet. During the night of May 2 to 3, a riot broke out after the intervention of the police to disperse a traditional boxing fight attended by nearly 400 people.
