The wish of the prefect of Pas-de-Calais Louis Le Franc has been granted.
From the start of the week, he proposed to the government to reconfigure its territory for the coming weekends, but also to impose the wearing of masks and to organize massive screenings in schools.
This Thursday evening, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, announced at a weekly press conference that the entire Pas-de-Calais department was also confined.
"The level of saturation of hospitals there is the highest in the country," he added, adding that the incidence "is very rapid" in recent days in this territory.
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Confinement on weekends: why is Ile-de-France spared but not Pas-de-Calais?
It is the only one of the 20 departments placed under enhanced surveillance last week to have to undergo new movement restrictions.
The incidence rate, the number of cases per 100,000 people, was 406 there last week.
It is as much as Seine-Saint-Denis but still less than for the Alpes-Maritimes (563).
A sign that the circulation of the virus is intense there, the incidence rate of Pas-de-Calais increased by 14.9% in the last week of February.
However, this is less than several Ile-de-France departments.
For four days, this increase seemed to slow down in Pas-de-Calais and was "only 3.2%".
To find the reasons for this decision, we must turn to hospital pressure.
In Pas-de-Calais, the number of patients treated in intensive care reached its peak in the second wave.
A measure criticized by elected officials
If the government wanted to give itself the time for consultation to convince with the prefects, the mayors, all were not understanding.
"Pas-de-Calais is very high for the incidence rate but several Ile-de-France departments are close to 400 and the dynamic is very comparable there", protested the mayor of Touquet (Pas-de-Calais) Daniel Fasquelle, which denounces a "double standards".
Earlier today, via a press release, the mayor (RN) of Hénin-Beaumont Steeve Briois “denounced” this confinement while the RN nevertheless defends territorialized measures in health matters.
"This decision, which is almost an exceptional measure, has the effect of stigmatizing and marginalizing the inhabitants of Pas-de-Calais who are punished and treated differently because the State accumulates failures", estimated the aedile.
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"It is incomprehensible that our department is both the least vaccinated in the Hauts-de-France region and one of the least vaccinated at the national level as well," said the close relative of Marine Le Pen.
He demands "explanations on what is nothing other than a health and political fiasco but also the intensification of the vaccination campaign before any new confinement".
