Faced with the saturation of Reunion's hospitals, the Regional Health Agency has decided to carry out the first medical evacuation to the metropolis of coronavirus patients hospitalized on the island.
"The Ministry of Health wants to be able to organize for the first time by the end of this week an unprecedented medical evacuation operation from Reunion Island to the Metropolis," said Martine Ladoucette, director of the ARS, in a statement. press conference held in Saint-Denis de la Réunion, adding that this concerns "four patients".
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"The occupancy rate of the intensive care units is 90%", specified the director of the ARS, recalling that a medical evacuation "does not go without saying neither on a technical level, nor on a medical level for the patients. people transferred and it is obviously the most stressful on a psychological level for the people concerned, for those around them, but also for health professionals ”.
"This is why it must be designed as essential in case of absolute need, but also as a last resort that should be avoided as much as possible," she added.
Many patients from Mayotte admitted to intensive care
We do medical evacuations, "because we are obliged to do it", for his part indicated the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, Tuesday, in front of the Assembly, adding that the sick will be directed "to the New Aquitaine region ".
"We will do it sparingly to save lives in Reunion and save lives in Mayotte," said the minister.
He recalled that there had already been medical evacuations for other pathologies: “We do it all the time from Reunion Island to the metropolis for appropriate care, particularly in cancer care, when the care on site specialized do not exist, we know how to do it ”.
Réunion has 122 intensive care beds.
“16 are occupied by patients from Réunion.
The others are by patients evacuated for medical purposes from Mayotte, ”detailed Martine Ladoucette.
These medical evacuations from the neighboring department of Reunion have provoked many hostile reactions to patients from Mayotte, accused of saturating Reunion's health system.
Since the start of the epidemic in Reunion Island on March 11, 2020, and until Wednesday February 24, 12,416 people have been infected with the virus, and 52 patients have died from the disease.
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The curfew will also be extended from Friday on the island, now extending from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m., the prefect of Reunion also announced on Tuesday, saying that he was acting to avoid "a very penalizing confinement".
It currently starts at 10 p.m.
In one week 850 new Covid-19 contaminations were identified by the health authorities, and "6% of these cases are from variants", noted the representative of the State.
The incidence rate has increased slightly.
As of Tuesday afternoon it was 104 per 100,000. The South African variant of the virus appeared there in January.
