Everyone is worried. The steps taken by the army are reassuring, but the fact of not knowing the zero patient throws the trouble ”, breathes this employee of the air base 110 of Creil (Oise). In the military compound, six cases of coronavirus were confirmed on Friday by the authorities. Three civilians - one of whom is still hospitalized in serious condition in Amiens (Somme) - and three soldiers.
Since the revelation of the first cases, Wednesday morning, the command organizes an information meeting every day, at 11 am, to keep the personnel informed. "We can not say, we are very caring for us, says a civilian working on the spot. If I ever tested positive, I know I would be taken care of immediately. The hardest part is knowing how the virus spread. "
But after three days of crisis, according to our information, the zero patient may have been identified. It is said to be a member of the military mission which participated in the French repatriation operations in China. It was he who would have transmitted the virus to the civilian patient hospitalized in Amiens as well as to a relative, who, herself, would have contaminated the professor of Crépy-en-Valois (Oise), who died on Tuesday of the coronavirus.
This series of contaminations has created a major crisis throughout the department and more particularly in this air base which has been part of the landscape for almost 70 years, but from which no more aircraft have taken off since 2016 and the departure of the Aero-military activity towards the base of Évreux (Eure). About 2,500 people remained, including just over 800 civilians.
"None have been placed in quarantine"
Among the main services stationed here, the Military Intelligence Directorate. But also the Esterel squadron, of which the presumed zero patient is a member. This transport unit participated in the repatriation operations of French expatriates based in Wuhan (China), where the Covid-19 was developed. Because if the planes of this squadron are based at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, its units are stationed in Creil.
VIDEO. Fear of the coronavirus wins the inhabitants of Crépy-en-Valois
According to our information, the soldiers of this unit did not experience the same containment measures as the expatriates who returned from China. "None have been placed in quarantine," said a military source. Only on leave of fourteen days at their home, but without control of their whereabouts, no more than those of their families. "
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However, a floating point in the Esterel route persists. After his return from China, via the Istres base (Bouches-du-Rhône), are the deployed soldiers ironed by Creil or have they returned directly to their home? None of the interviewees could confirm or refute this point.
"Why didn't you act?" "
And anyway, "they potentially have friends on the base, even children in the same school. Most live in the area, in Creil, Senlis, and even as far as Compiègne. All are dating. The risk was enormous, why not take action? Asks another source, worried about the number of people that the members of this squadron could have contaminated.
Concerning the first patient touched in the base and plunged in a coma in Amiens, the rumors on his account did not stop swelling. “We have heard everything, especially that he was a medical assistant on the Esterel, it is completely false. He is a civil servant in the administration who works in an office, ”recounts this man who protested against this false news propagated by certain media.
On Twitter, the Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, assured that an epidemiological investigation was under way and that measures were being taken "such as the cancellation of collective activities and the suspension of professional travel from or to the base", she said without detailing the role of the transport squadron.