This is the third French repatriation from Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic. "38 of our nationals" will return Sunday by a flight organized by "the British authorities", announced this Friday the Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn. Update on the epidemic in France and the strengthening of surveillance measures.
They also confined to Aix-en-Provence
They will be placed in confinement for 14 days on the premises of the École nationale supérieure des officiers de pompiers pompiers (Ensosp) in Aix-en-Provence. They will join the 78 other people who arrived on February 2 - 19 French and nationals of fifteen other nationalities.
The coronavirus epidemic has infected 31,161 people in mainland China, of whom 636 have died, according to a latest official report. In the rest of the world, 240 cases of contamination have been confirmed in around 30 countries and territories, including two fatal, in Hong Kong and the Philippines.
No positive case among the first returnees
The second tests carried out on the approximately 200 people repatriated from Wuhan on January 31 in a first plane, and currently in quarantine in the seaside resort of Carry-le-Rouet (Bouches-du-Rhône), turned out to be negative, moreover announced this Friday the Regional Health Agency.
"The people accommodated benefited from two examinations, the day after their arrival and yesterday ( Editor's note: Thursday ), and all these samples turned out to be negative," insisted Philippe de Mester, the director general of ARS Provence-Alpes- French Riviera (Paca). “As the quarantine progresses, the risks for these people of falling sick and the risk of contamination for the environment diminish very quickly, to approach nullity. "
VIDEO. In Asia, images of massive disinfection of streets, stations, hospitals, etc.
The prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône, Pierre Dartout, and the director general of ARS, have also forcefully denounced a false press release from ANSES (Health Security Agency) circulating for several days in the town and claiming that the coronavirus could be transmitted to the inhabitants by cats and dogs wandering in the vacation site where the returnees are confined.
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The 78 people who arrived on February 2 with the second plane and confined to the Ensosp in Aix-en-Provence, had undergone first tests - negative - and await their second wave of exams on Saturday.
Several of the six hospitalized patients are doing better
The number of people affected by the coronavirus in France still stands at six, this Friday. They are hospitalized in isolation rooms, in Paris and Bordeaux. The condition of several of them has improved. "They could be out in a few days," said number 2 of the ministry, Health Director Jérôme Salomon, this Friday. Authorities have set a condition that "at least two tests" be negative 24 hours apart, to make sure they can no longer transmit the virus.
On the other hand, "a lot of concern" remains about the fate of the most affected patient, an 80-year-old Chinese man in intensive care in Paris. His vital prognosis is still in progress. No other case of patients infected with coronavirus was reported in France on this date.
Here is what we know about these six patients:
- A 48-year-old Bordeaux resident. The first patient is a Bordeaux native of China, who returned to France on January 22 from China where he had notably passed through Wuhan where the virus appeared at the end of 2019. He was hospitalized the next day in Bordeaux, after having presented to SOS-Doctors with cough and fever. Confirmation of its contamination was announced on January 24.
- A couple of Chinese thirties are also among the first cases announced on January 24. The 31-year-old man and 30-year-old woman from Wuhan arrived in France on January 18 and are hospitalized in Bichat in Paris.
- An octogenarian and his daughter. Arrived in France on January 23, an 80-year-old Chinese man from the province of Hubei is in intensive care in serious condition at the Bichat hospital in Paris. This patient had initially consulted the emergency room of the European hospital Georges Pompidou on Saturday 25, but had not been identified as a suspect case. He had a fever but no cough or respiratory signs and was not from Wuhan, but from a city 400 km to the north. He then developed breathing problems that prompted a change in his ranking and the test came back positive on January 28.
The following day, the contamination of her 50-year-old daughter was announced. We do not know if she arrived in France already ill or if the virus was transmitted to her by her father on French soil.
- A contaminated doctor in France. The sixth case of infection announced on January 30 is the first proven case of transmission on French soil : it is a liberal doctor who was contaminated in France by a Chinese patient who came to consult him, before going go to Taiwan where he declared the disease. He was hospitalized in isolation at the Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris. The head of the infectious diseases department of this hospital, Professor Eric Caumes, told France 2 that this patient was undergoing experimental treatment, based on molecules used "in other viral diseases".
Reinforced surveillance measures
France is strengthening its recommendations to French people returning from the rest of China. "Within 14 days of their return", these people must avoid leaving their homes for "non-essential activities" (cinema, restaurant, etc.), monitor their temperature twice a day and "wear a surgical mask while presence of other people and outside their home, "said Minister Agnès Buzyn.