He was very uneasy.
Then a second caused by a carabine fever.
While transporting the most serious Covid patients every day, Jean-Marc Agostinucci, emergency doctor at Samu 93, had managed to escape the virus in the spring, a feat despite the lack of protection.
And now in October, yet equipped from head to toe, he was nailed to the hospital by the coronavirus.
“48 hours on oxygen,” says this doctor with a solid career, who has just returned to work after a long sick leave.
“One, two… six colleagues also caught it during this same period and three were hospitalized.
Was there any relaxation?
Certainly, ”he admits.
His case is far from isolated.
All over France, the caregivers questioned are unanimous: there is much more contamination in the hospital during this second wave.
The figures just published by Santé Publique France confirm this.
If since the start of the epidemic, 59,724 professionals, including all personnel, have been infected with the virus, the curve peaked at the end of October-beginning of November, up to nearly 3,200 weekly infections against around 2,500 at the half April.
"It is indisputable!
In my department, we are on a tightrope with major absenteeism.
We have around ten hospital workers permanently on sick leave, ”reports Patrick Goldstein, head of the Samu du Nord and head of emergencies at the Lille University Hospital.
“That's why we are all rushing to get vaccinated.
"
"The more areas there are affected, the more health professionals are infected"
50 km away, at the Arras hospital, Quentin Broucqsault, nurse in sheave, also saw "a dozen doctors, nurses and nursing assistants affected by the Covid against zero during the first wave!"
A colleague from Valenciennes even told me that half of the staff in his department had caught it, it's strange but it's like that everywhere.
"" It is sometimes a little complicated to manage, "concedes Jean-Christophe Richard, head of intensive care at Croix-Rousse, Lyon.
On the side of Paris hospitals, 4,837 staff were infected between February and July against 5,810 from August to December.
And this increase is even more striking in the Phocaean City where the contamination figures are three times higher.
"We had 81 doctors and interns infected in the spring and 302 non-medical staff such as nursing assistants, nurses and secretaries, against 289 and 856 during this second wave", tells us the Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Marseille (AP- HM).
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How can this trend be explained even though the lack of protection so much criticized in the spring, in particular masks, is no longer relevant?
First, the October containment was not as strict as the first.
Then the second wave was more diffuse.
"However, the more there are affected territories, the more there are infected health professionals, it is mathematical", summarizes Frédéric Valletoux, president of the Hospital Federation of France (FHF).
Another factor may explain this increase.
"In the collective consciousness, we begin to live with this virus, to know it, we have less apprehension", advance Quentin Broucqsault, nurse in intensive care.
"While at the start of the epidemic, caregivers became infected because there was a lack of knowledge about the modes of transmission of the virus and also of masks and gowns, this time, we observed a decrease in vigilance, especially in mess rooms or hospital rest rooms, there have been transmissions between colleagues, ”says professor of medicine Élisabeth Rouveix, president of the Study Group on the risk of exposure of caregivers to infectious agents (Geres) who worked on this issue.
"Many young caregivers have become infected in their private life"
The emergency physician Jean-Marc Agostinucci goes so far as to speak of the self as "of a trap".
“Everyone who was infected like me ate in the canteen at the same time.
Lunch break, break times… that's where the attention slackens.
At the Parisian hospital Tenon, the infectious disease specialist Gilles Pialoux made the observation.
"We kept going through the break rooms saying, there are three of you, that's too much, open the windows," he says.
There may be a weariness of barrier gestures.
"
Added to this is the start of the school year in September where 2nd year students came for a nursing internship without having been tested.
“I was one of the first to get angry.
They were exfiltrated, sent home while waiting for them to be tested, resulting in 15% of them being positive!
"In Marseille, contagions take place" 95% "outside the hospital, explains the AP-HM.
"Many young caregivers got infected in their private life at the end of the summer and they brought the virus back to their workplace", says Marc Léone, the head of intensive care at the North hospital in Marseille, said. keeping all judgment.
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This outbreak of cases has caused "a reframing", tells us the resuscitator, "a small meeting, a few reminders" as is the case in another hospital in Lyon, where occupational medicine has banged its fist on the table.
"We asked them to be careful and at the beginning of December, the situation improved a lot, there was a recovery of consciousness," continues Marc Léone.
Could some have infected patients?
“There are services where people have been contaminated by health professionals,” he admits.
Another question arises.
For each AP-HM infection, the caregiver was arrested for seven days, which was the case for 289 doctors.
Has their absence damaged the hospital machine?
“Fortunately, we are close to 2,000, answers Marc Léone.
But at one point, we asked ourselves the question.
This represents a real danger.
"