The countdown has started for French returnees from Wuhan in China, the epicenter of the epidemic caused by a new coronavirus: they must arrive in France this Friday and will be put in solitary confinement for 14 days in a holiday center in Carry-le-Rouet, near Marseille.
Their military plane took off from Wuhan on Friday at 7:07 a.m. local time (12:07 a.m. French time) and must land after about 12 and a half hours flight to Istres (Bouches-du-Rhône), told members of the delegation of the official French delegation present on place, according to AFP journalists on board.
These 200 French returnees will be isolated in a holiday center in Carry-le-Rouet, a city on the Mediterranean, said Jérôme Salomon. These are people who do not have symptoms.
"Psychosis" in Carry-le-Rouet
"The specifications were fairly clear, [we needed] a pleasant place" and "a place where there was enough space," said Professor Salomon. According to him, there was "no question of putting these people in places of detention or care when they are not sick".
During their period of isolation, they will be subject to medical surveillance to ensure that they are not contaminated by the virus: "We will ask them to take their temperature, to have a mask".
Residents of Carry-le-Rouet are "in anguish, saying to me: is it sure that they are not contaminated? ", However, said the mayor, Jean Montagnac.
💬 "It's psychosis, people are panicking"
The mayor of Carry-le-Rouet, where French returnees from China are to be welcomed, denounces "a health danger" ⤵ pic.twitter.com/ZFCMktLtr3
Regretting to have been informed "by the press" of the choice of his city before being informed by the government, the city councilor wanted to be reassuring: "I have no concern because even if there had someone contaminated and that we don't know, they will be confined in an almost inaccessible place ”.
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These returnees will be placed "by families in separate rooms," said the prefect of the Paca region, Pierre Dartout, during a press conference in Marseille.
"They will be able to go outside, inside the center," he added, adding that then, "they will take the necessary equipment to protect themselves and others, for example masks". These people will have to sign a "commitment" to respect quarantine, according to the prefect.
Positioned gendarmes
"The gendarmes were positioned to avoid any penetration into the site, in the very interest of all those who might want to enter," said the prefect, who said, however, "we must above all not maintain the psychoses" but “reassure all the inhabitants of the sector”.
Early Thursday evening, French time, the repatriated passengers had a medical examination at Wuhan airport before taking the plane.
Officials from the French delegation of doctors and officials who arrived on the scene said that people with suspicious symptoms would have to take another flight.
A second flight planned
Tuesday, the European Commission had indicated that a second flight was planned "later in the week", to evacuate other French and nationals of other European countries. "We will have a lot more information from [this Friday]," said Jérôme Salomon.
To date, approximately 8,900 cases of infection with this new virus have been detected in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong) and 213 patients have died. A hundred patients have been listed in twenty other countries, and no patient has died outside of China.
Air France announced Thursday that it will suspend all scheduled flights to and from mainland China until February 9. The Chinese New Year parade scheduled for Sunday in Paris has been postponed until the spring. "We are in the most extreme vigilance," said President Emmanuel Macron.