The first army reinforcements have arrived in Martinique.
To cope with the outbreak of Covid-19 on the island, around fifty soldiers were deployed on site to increase "the reception capacity in intensive care" at the CHU of Fort-de-France, specify the Armed Forces in the West Indies in a press release.
Of the 50 soldiers from the army health service and the army medical regiment who must be deployed by Friday, 37 were integrated Tuesday at the University Hospital Center (CHU) with means that will "increase its reception capacity in intensive care of five places then ten before the end of the week ”, they specified.
# Resilience |
The armies are deploying a military resuscitation module to strengthen the CHU of Fort-de-France in the face of the high epidemic tension of # COVID_19.
# Our Defense pic.twitter.com/g95SHsI0xo
- French Army - Military operations (@EtatMajorFR) August 3, 2021
“The mission is to support the civilian health system,” said Yves Asencio, resuscitator anesthesiologist and chief doctor of the military resuscitation module on his arrival.
"The Armies are used to working in an emergency with short deadlines to support the population," he stressed.
"The overflow into the hospital and the massive influx of patients in serious condition made it necessary to increase the number of intensive care beds," said Jérôme Viguier, director of the Regional Health Agency ( ARS), on RCI radio.
A "deterioration of the situation in Guadeloupe"
"We adapt the requests for reinforcements according to the level of saturation of the hospital but it becomes more and more complicated with the deterioration of the situation in Guadeloupe and the situations which are worsening in certain territories of the hexagon", a he recognized.
In Martinique, 198 patients were hospitalized on Monday, including 37 in intensive care.
In addition, eight deaths were recorded between Sunday and Monday.
Between July 13 and August 2, 45 patients lost their lives at the CHU.
Three patients in intensive care were transferred Sunday to mainland France from Martinique and were taken care of in AP-HP establishments in Ile-de-France.
Read also Covid-19: Martinique, Guyana ... why overseas are three times less vaccinated than the metropolis
In an attempt to curb the epidemic outbreak, the island was re-confined last Friday for a period of at least three weeks.
At the same time, the authorities hope to see an acceleration of vaccination, which is struggling to take off in the territory.
Martinique has only 21% of inhabitants who have received at least one dose of vaccine and 16% who are fully vaccinated, according to data from Public Health France.
Nationwide, these rates are - respectively - 63% and 53%.
This finding is all the more problematic as the rate of comorbidities is higher in the West Indies than in mainland France.
