The Covid-19 epidemic is accelerating "worryingly" in Dunkirk and Gravelines (North), the regional health authorities alerted Wednesday, who will organize next week "an exceptional screening campaign" in the sector.
While the English variant is very present there, "the positivity rate of the tests reaches 10%", specifies the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Hauts-de-France.
“The Dunkirk and Gravelinois have been experiencing a worrying acceleration in the circulation of Covid-19 for several weeks.
Thus, the incidence rates in the urban community of Dunkirk and the community of communes of Hauts-de-Flandre […] respectively reach 485 and 424 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (against 208 at the national level) ”, indicates Wednesday evening l 'ARS in a statement.
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Since mid-January, the health authorities have been carrying out "a systematic search for variants" on the positive tests.
According to analyzes carried out Monday and Tuesday by a private laboratory, out of 1,367 tests carried out in Dunkirk, 172 were positive, including 117 revealing the presence of the British variant ”.
In Gravelinois, out of 305 PCR tests carried out, 32 were positive, 17 of which were for the English variant.
"The alert level reached at the hospital"
"In Dunkirk, the penetration rate of the English variant is three times higher than the regional average, and six times higher than the national average," warned the mayor of the town, Patrice Vergriete, on his Facebook page on Wednesday morning, calling on the inhabitants "with the greatest vigilance".
“The reception here at the hospital has reached the alert level.
Today, 55 patients are in fact hospitalized for Covid, nine are in intensive care, in a service which is now saturated, which last weekend required the transfer of ten patients to other hospitals in the region, ”he explains in a short video shot at the hospital.
Faced with this situation and the "very marked presence of the English variant", "an exceptional screening campaign is being organized by the ARS and its partners in several municipalities in the sector.
It will be offered to the population in the course of next week, ”adds the ARS press release.
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The health authorities also intend to deploy in this territory "the new system of 'anti-covid' mediators, which allows in the same place and at the same time to carry out tests, carry out contact tracing and deliver prevention messages".