The French government announces this Friday the reinforcement of the means of fight against the rise of the cases of South African variant on the island of Reunion, overseas department located in the Indian Ocean, in particular by increasing the hospital capacities and by extending the curfew.
“On January 17, the first cases of contamination by the 501.V2 variant of Covid-19, which appeared in South Africa, were detected in Reunion.
Since then, cases […] have been identified on a regular basis, which testifies to a proven circulation on the territory ”, explains the joint press release of Sébastien Lecornu and Olivier Véran.
Reunion's hospitals have also been asked to take care of "many patients" from Mayotte, where the health situation required a general re-containment on February 5.
Services of the CHU de La Réunion and the CHOR have been reorganized, affirm the Ministers of Overseas France and of Health, and several conventional hospitalization units, in the private and public sectors, could be transformed into Covid medicine beds " if the health situation requires it ”.
The health reserve will mobilize "a resuscitator anesthetist, four general practitioners, 18 nurses specializing in resuscitation, 14 general care nurses and 13 nursing assistants" to strengthen the caregivers who take care of Covid patients.
There will be added “5 doctors and 5 nurses” for medical evacuations between Mayotte and Reunion.
Increased control of travel documents
In order to vaccinate people at risk as quickly as possible, it was also decided to speed up vaccine deliveries to Reunion Island: 8,190 doses of Pfizer / BioNTech serum will be delivered from the week of February 15, then a minimum of 30 420 additional doses by the end of March.
As of Wednesday evening, a total of 29,945 doses had been delivered to the island and 13,026 people had been vaccinated in the department.
To limit the risks of the virus and variants spreading, the curfew introduced since February 12 in four municipalities (Saint-Louis, La Possession, Le Port and Saint-Leu) has been extended by the prefecture to three additional municipalities, Sainte-Suzanne, Salazie and l'Etang-Salé.
It has been in effect since Thursday evening from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Finally, in order to strengthen the control of the compelling reasons for travel between Reunion Island and the metropolis and Reunion Island and Mayotte, a procedure for examining the supporting documents will be put in place from tomorrow Saturday on the Reunion-Mayotte and Reunion- routes. Hexagon.
Important care has already been taken in verifying documents: according to La Réunion the 1st, a Belgian national is to be tried on Friday on the island in an immediate appearance.
Aged in his thirties, he landed on Thursday morning at Roland-Garros airport with an employment contract.
Air and border police called the employer to verify.
The future employee was unknown, his contract was false.
The young man admitted wanting to join a friend, and cherish the hope of looking for work once there.
From Saturday, any person wishing to leave Reunion Island will have to, whatever their destination, provide online proof of their overriding reason, six days before departure, while the prefecture services check it.
A receipt authorizing travel will be issued to persons, or a refusal receipt, which will also be served on airlines.
