If the figure may surprise, the increase was predictable. In barely a day, the number of coronavirus cases in France rose from 18 to 38. Almost double to double. The reason, a more in-depth research of the potential patients on the territory.
Thus, this Thursday, 12 cases of grouped contaminations were identified in the Oise, linked to the two patients detected twenty-four hours earlier in the department. "These are professional or family contacts hospitalized in many sites in France where they were when they were contacted for testing," said Director General of Health Jérôme Salomon on Thursday evening. Some have been welcomed in Nantes, Lille, Dijon or Annecy while two people in serious condition are being treated at the Tenon hospital, in Paris and in Compiègne. Another cluster "patient grouping" was reported in Haute-Savoie. A 64-year-old man, returning from Lombardy, has since Tuesday infected three other people around him. In the list of new patients, two elderly people who had traveled to Egypt must be added, as well as two isolated cases who returned from Italy.
Currently, France has 24 hospitalized, 12 cured and two died of the virus. An assessment which is still likely to increase due to the investigations still in progress. In Crépy-en-Valois, in Oise, a survey is, for example, conducted among students who have been in contact with their technology teacher, who died of coronavirus on Tuesday. The Jean de la Fontaine college, which was to open this Monday after the holidays, will keep doors closed until Wednesday inclusive.
A hunt worthy of a detective story
For the past few days, France has been dreading an Italian scenario with an outbreak of cases. In question, the impossibility of identifying the zero patient, responsible for the two contaminations in the Oise. They are not responsible for the spread of the virus: neither have traveled to a risk area or have been in contact with infected people. A hunt worthy of a detective novel is therefore launched. To find this famous source and avoid the spread of the virus, the epidemiologists of the Regional Health Agency (ARS) began to trace the timetable and the course of the first two cases of the Oise.
"It is an epidemiological investigation which begins, warns Anne-Marie Moulin, doctor and philosopher, researcher of the CNRS emeritus in a Parisian laboratory. Scientists, like detectives, will progressively question the family, loved ones, and reconstruct the lifestyle habits of the two patients during the past month. It seems very difficult to me. Difficult, of course, but already effective. By looking for the chain of contamination, upstream and downstream, the authorities thus discovered all these new patients. "It is a cumbersome investigation but our strategy pays off because we find contact cases," said Jérôme Salomon. Very few cases remain without explanation. The plan continues in the Oise where a "team composed of infectious disease specialists, emergency physicians, hygienists and epidemiologists" goes on site Friday to "continue the investigations," said Professor Salomon.
For his part, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, was reassuring, explaining that "our health system is ready, we have and will stay one step ahead". In order to inform the French as much as possible about the evolution of the Covid-19 and to reassure them, the toll-free number (0 800 130 000) set up on February 1 by the government will be accessible, as of now, 24 hours a day. 24 hours.
It must be used for practical matters (travel, travel, etc.), but in the event of a medical emergency, the 15 remains the only number to dial. The authorities remind him, do not go to the emergency room.
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