This is the largest medical evacuation of Covid-19 patients on French territory or in neighboring countries since the start of the epidemic. And this, to prevent the Grand Est region, the most affected with nearly 3300 hospitalized patients including 700 in intensive care this Saturday, from experiencing too large an influx of patients.
Several transfers of patients infected with the coronavirus to other less affected regions have taken place or are scheduled this weekend, by air or by land.
Helicopter transfers from Metz to Germany
Two seriously ill individuals were evacuated by a military helicopter from Metz this Saturday morning, as part of Operation Resilience. They were taken to a hospital in Essen (Germany), on the other side of the Franco-German border.
Two patients # covid_19 evacuated from Metz to Germany by helicopter #AFP pic.twitter.com/d7z5pkUkJ9
- Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) March 28, 2020According to François Braun, chief of the emergency service of the regional hospital center of Metz, a new rotation towards Germany of a military helicopter, with two other patients, will be "probably" carried out Sunday at the beginning of afternoon. Since the start of the epidemic, "a dozen" of patients with Covid-19 have also been transported by ambulances to German hospitals, he said.
Operation Resilience - Caiman helicopters from the French Army will take care of several patients with Covid-19. From Metz, they will transport them to Germany, to hospitals capable of accommodating them.
- Florence Parly (@florence_parly) March 28, 2020On Monday, for example, two patients had been helicoptered to Hombourg (western Germany) by German civilian medical devices, among other transfers to Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg made by land or air.
Evacuation by TGV for 36 patients
On French territory, dozens of patients will also leave the Grand Est region, the most affected by the epidemic, to reach New Aquitaine this weekend. Fourteen have already made the trip Friday, by air. Four patients are expected this Saturday in hospitals in Poitiers and Limoges.
Sunday, 36 other hospitalized patients will arrive on two medical TGVs, to be distributed in a dozen cities. "One train will terminate at Poitiers and the other at Bayonne, with a stop at Bordeaux," said the Regional Health Agency of New Aquitaine in a press release.
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VIDEO. Medicalized TGV: 20 patients evacuated from the Grand-Est to the Pays de la Loire
Thursday, 20 seriously ill patients had already been evacuated to hospitals located in the Pays de la Loire region.
Six patients took a special bus on Friday
On Friday, seven patients hospitalized in Reims were transported by bus to Orléans. The cabin of the vehicle had been specially fitted out, including the installation of oxygen cylinders.
Once arrived at their destination on Friday evening, the patients were transferred to the Orléans regional hospital center. Then the vehicle was "totally disinfected", before being brought back to Reims, according to Thierry Schidler, president of the company Autocars Schidler, based in the city located in the Marne.
The bus should "be used for new transport on Wednesday," said the manager, adding that "a dozen sleeper coaches" belonging to a network of bus operators in France would be available to be "converted into collective ambulances".
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