Nearly 80 people, 39 health professionals and 39 patients, have tested positive for Covid-19 since Friday, November 27 at the La Palmosa hospital in Menton (Alpes-Maritimes), which has been facing an influx of patients for several days. this coronavirus.
The hospital, which employs 550 people for 265 beds, set up a screening campaign on Friday.
It made it possible to detect these patients, 12 of whom are patients in long-term care units, the management of the establishment said Thursday.
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Simultaneously, the hospital is facing an upsurge in arrivals of Covid-19 patients.
“
Since April, we have had a Covid sector which, at most, between March and June, received an active queue of eight patients for 16 beds;
we reopened this service in September with a new 16 beds but last Friday, faced with the influx of positive patients at the emergency level, we had to move to 25 Covid beds, 22 of which are currently occupied
, ”said the director of the
hospital.
establishment, Odile Capitani-Dollo, during a press point.
To cope with this influx, the hospital has called on local solidarity and is organizing transfers of the most serious patients to hospitals in Nice, Monaco, Breil-sur-Roya and Sospel.
"
The situation is under control,
" assured the management of the establishment, which has taken measures to prohibit all visits to the long-term care sector, which welcomes dependent elderly people.
She closed the imaging department, where the first focus of infection had been detected.
Most professionals affected by the virus, including doctors, are asymptomatic and "
no professional has been hospitalized,
" added the establishment.
Affected patients are themselves asymptomatic.
"
We have found that, since the start of the epidemic, we have always had a lag of 10 to 15 days with the situation at the national level
", noted the director.
"
There may also have been a relaxation, both on the part of our professionals, on the part of visitors, families, consultants, it is multifactorial
", she also estimated.