How to protect yourself from the Covid-19 when you are an archipelago of 250 km2 which has only sea and air links with Canada? This is the puzzle of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, in North America, and its 6,500 inhabitants who, like a large part of the world population, had to confine themselves to avoid the spread of the virus.
Read also: Saint-Pierre and Miquelon: the elected officials call for early deconfinement
For a week, flights with Canada were suspended and today only a fortnightly flight connects Saint-Pierre to Montreal. As for the ferries usually sailing to Newfoundland, they remain at the dock. When it was necessary to manage the return of Saint-Pierrais to Canada or the mainland, around 130 people were asked to put themselves in a strict fortnight at home. Has the strategy paid off? Yes, since only one positive, but controlled case, was recorded and the entire archipelago was deconfigured on April 27 with reopening of most stores. Since the schoolchildren have reinvested their classes, applying health precautions - parents no longer enter the school and hand washing must be done upon arrival and several times a day. But they also found a school life "normal ”, the recreations having been maintained as before. The problem of the archipelago today is to organize the return of its students scattered between Canada, the metropolis and Europe.
Golden prison
Those living in metropolitan France had barely had time to taste the deconfinement when they reconfigured themselves in a hotel near Charles-de-Gaulle airport in Roissy. Contacted by the overseas department, which decided to organize a direct flight on May 30 from Paris to bring them home, 75 responded. On May 16, everyone managed to reach the BnB hotel and undergo a first test. All negative. Since then, they are requested to respect the barrier gestures, to wear masks when they are ventilated outside - bearings are put in place so that they do not all go out at the same time! - and disinfect your hands. The three meals of the day are brought to the rooms and twice a day we take their temperature. " It's a bit like a golden prison," says Clémence Cormier, a student who was on an internship in Paris. But the people who are there to watch us are quite nice and answer all our questions. "
Sports lessons are organized in the hotel car park, a library has been made available and some take the opportunity to complete their exams or write their dissertation. “In the evening, a few meet outside to listen to the SPM 1st newspaper. Everyone talks to each other, whereas before we knew each other, but we didn't necessarily know each other. This situation weaves interesting links ” , affirms Clémence who when ordering from the supermarket next door consoled herself for“ this very special atmosphere ”by buying a bottle of champagne. One way like another to assess the time remaining before May 30, the date of departure to Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon.
What would happen if one of them was positive? Annick Girardin, the Minister of Overseas France, who came to welcome the students on the day of their arrival, remained unclear on this question. But it seems obvious that if one of them tested positive, he would not get on the plane. Only those who will be tested negative after a second test will board. Thanks to this exceptional device set up by the French overseas department, students will return to their family home without taking the traditional route via Montreal, Halifax or Saint-Jean in Newfoundland. And after a very supervised procedure which will allow them to check in at the hotel from where they will be taken by bus on the tarmac at the foot of the plane.
Stigma
A return that is not to everyone's taste on the archipelago. Many people in Saint-Pierre fear that the students will bring the virus back. And say so on social media. A stigma felt by the 29 Saint-Pierrais students who returned from Canada on May 12, put on a bus and dropped off at the Robert hotel where they have been confined since. " I have been confined since March!" Laments Marie Cormier, who talks daily with her sister ... Confined to Roissy. I left Rimouski (500 km north of Montreal, in the province of Quebec, note) by plane a week before my return flight to Saint-Pierre and I stayed in a hotel near the airport. Since his days are punctuated by meals prepared by the hotel restaurant and " better than those of my sister!" " But the atmosphere is not the same either. Monitored during the day by customs officials - unoccupied by the sharp drop in air links - and the gendarmes, at night by a private surveillance company, they are only allowed to go out twice twice thirty minutes a day. They only had surgical masks a week after their arrival. They will only be tested once, on the 13th day of the fortnight. And we strongly advised them not to approach the barriers that prevent access to the nearby street.
In this environment where the news quickly circumnavigates the Caillou, the nickname that the inhabitants give to Saint-Pierre, the objective is to avoid giving a hold to bad interpretations. The prefect Thierry Devimeux also had to put an end to a rumor. Students are said to have " escaped " from the Robert hotel and the gendarmes chased them. " Before writing on Facebook, we turn our finger seven times on the screen, " he told the SPM newspaper 1st last week. In this somewhat deleterious atmosphere, he visited the students to reassure them, and said that " they are very responsible ".
At the end of May, 104 students will return to their homes. But others are still in Canada and in mainland France. In the meantime, anyone who wants to leave or return to the archipelago must obtain a prefectural authorization. But the most thorny problem remains the 12 direct flights of summer with Paris. Should we keep them or not? The issue also divides the population. Senator Stéphane Artano declared himself for their cancellation in order to preserve the territory. The prefect poses the problem in these terms: " What summer do we want in the archipelago?" Proposals will be made to the government by the end of May. The only certainty: the tourist season is missed.