The hospital group of the Mulhouse and South-Alsace region (GHRMSA), which includes ten establishments in the Haut-Rhin, announced on Tuesday that it had triggered the White Plan due in particular to the lack of caregivers, in this establishment or nearly 170 employees unvaccinated were suspended.
The hospital group explained in a press release that it was faced with "a critical situation marked by the continued management of the health crisis, the need for additional human resources, the reduction in the number of beds linked to significant absenteeism".
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Already affected by a "recurring" shortage of staff, the group said it had suspended 169 staff who are not vaccinated, including many caregivers, out of nearly 6,000 employees.
A total of 41 patients sick with Covid-19 remain hospitalized in GHRMSA establishments, including 15 in intensive care.
The White Plan allows for the deprogramming of non-urgent operations and to request staff reinforcements.
"The triggering of this exceptional device aims to ensure the best possible continuity of care," said the hospital.
Haut-Rhin is the only department in the Grand Est where the incidence rate reaches 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to data from the Regional Health Agency.
This rate even rises to 143.1 for the agglomeration community of Mulhouse.
Immunization rate too low in the population
In addition, in this department, however hard hit by the first wave of Covid-19 in March 2020, only 66% of the population is fully vaccinated, figures much lower than in neighboring departments.
In the spring of 2020, the Alsatian departments, and in particular the Haut-Rhin, had been early and very hard hit by the first wave of the epidemic of the new coronavirus, leading to saturation of the hospitals of Mulhouse, Colmar and Strasbourg.
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Faced with the urgency of the situation, a military field hospital had to be deployed to support the parking lot of the Emile-Muller hospital in Mulhouse, a first in metropolitan France in peacetime.
