Six Covid-19 patients were transferred from Corsica and Occitania to Brittany and the Grand-Est on Friday, and six others must be evacuated from Martinique to Paris this weekend, authorities said.
As in the first three epidemic waves, medical evacuations are increasing to relieve the most crowded hospitals.
In Corsica, where three patients in intensive care had already been transported to Marseille, three other transfers from Ajaccio and Bastia "took place today (Friday) to Brittany", according to the prefecture.
Two were taken care of at the University Hospital of Brest (Finistère) and the third in Morlaix (Finistère), said the regional health agency (ARS) of Brittany.
Three other patients hospitalized in intensive care at the Montpellier University Hospital were transferred by plane to Metz, the regional hospital center (CHR) in Lorraine said.
Since the start of the week, ten patients have been evacuated from Montpellier, Toulouse, Montauban, Nîmes and Narbonne to the Grand-Est and Hauts-de-France, detailed ARS Occitanie.
Transfers from the West Indies
In Martinique, Air Caraïbes will "send a plane on behalf of the Ministry" of Health, the boss of the airline, Marc Rochet, announced on LCI. The device must "be in place on Saturday" and "bring six patients" to metropolitan France in order "to alleviate the burden on the hospital of Fort-de-France in terms of resuscitation," he added. A health source indicated that "the plane which leaves to seek them took off today", slipping in passing that "there will be other round trips".
These "Covid + resuscitation patients, intubated ventilated", can be transferred "in maximum safety conditions" thanks to the intervention of "14 health professionals from the different Samus in France, who volunteered for this operation, assisted by 10 rescuers ”. According to the Ministry of Health, 10 intensive care patients have already been transferred from the Antilles to Île-de-France since July 30, five from Guadeloupe and five from Martinique. "In view of the health situation there, the transfers will continue and accelerate", it was stressed.
