"Isn't that a bit of a stretch?
», Astonished a reader of the Oise edition of the Parisien.
On February 28, 2020, after the coronavirus made a first French death, resident of Vaumoise, a senior from Crépy-en-Valois commented as follows: “What is happening to us is the plague.
Resumed in our columns, after a slight hesitation, the formula had been the source of debate.
And yet ...
Not a plague, not a flu, but an unprecedented health crisis, the history of which in France began in the land of Ois.
As of February 29, the department was officially considered to be the “main focus”, with 36 contaminations.
"We went very quickly to 90 cases", rewinds Nadège Lefebvre, president of the departmental council.
"I didn't know what a cluster was"
The elected remembers her “amazement” on learning of the death of a professor from Crépy-en-Valois and then, very quickly, of a call “announcing a cluster of nine municipalities… I did not know what a cluster.
It was a year ago and the situation remains critical, the maximum alert threshold having once again been exceeded.
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Covid-19: one year later, the Oise is still running after the lull
The front of the stage, the Oise would have left it to someone else.
“We clearly wiped the plasters,” comments a hospital manager.
The first days, we cried for help, we said that we were not ready and the health authorities only told us to report back, we had no directives.
"
A nurse in an intensive care unit in the department, Myriam
(the first name has been changed)
said to herself "that it was going to be fine, that a small hospital like [hers] would never have to manage that, that it was going to be limited to large Parisian hospitals… In my opinion, we could not find ourselves in the Oise, dressed as in China, as in disaster films.
"
"At the beginning, we don't know anything, and then we dive in"
But reality catches up with caregivers.
“At first, we don't know anything, we say to ourselves:
They are doing too much for the flu
.
And then we dive, blows another caregiver sheave.
We are quickly overwhelmed by the Covid entrances, we come back to our rest ... We become plague victims of the hospital, beds are opened in an emergency, separated by screens ... It's war!
"
And during this time… “There are certain days when I call the prefect fifteen times to try to get answers, continues Nadège Lefebvre.
In hindsight, everything seems incredible, but at the time we do not know.
We receive the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, at 50 in a small room, without a mask.
"The closing of schools on March 4," I learned from the media, it was necessary to urgently distribute four tons of food stored in college refrigerators.
"
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PODCAST. Coronavirus: how the Oise, the first "focus" in France, saw the "wave" arrive
Fifteen days before the rest of France, the Oise is put under a bell.
Shops are closing, gatherings are prohibited, travel is not recommended… For the inhabitants, it was “a surreal period, a few days earlier, we looked at Italy, saying to ourselves that they were doing tons of it and, of course. suddenly, it was the others who said that about us ”, remembers a Compiégnois.
A period of Oise bashing "very complicated to live"
"When you say theaters are closed, aren't all theaters?
», Astonished an Ile-de-France resident, yet aware of the situation.
Well yes.
“We then entered a period of Oise bashing that was very complicated to live with,” recalls Nadège Lefebvre.
Neighboring departments have issued decrees prohibiting the people of Oise, including children, from crossing their border… ”
An inhabitant of Seine-Saint-Denis working in the Oise then fell from the clouds.
Her partner, employed in Paris, had been sent home after having mentioned the place where her spouse works.
Testimonies are pouring in from everywhere: “I live in Brittany and my child could not return to school because we spent part of our vacation in Beauvais.
"
"The people of Crépy were a little afraid"
Unfortunately in the front row, Xavier
(the first name has been changed)
, professor at the Jean-de-la-Fontaine college in Crépy-en-Valois, where the first victim of the virus taught, remembers having spoken to relatives living in other departments.
“Some took it lightly, unaware of what was happening.
It's normal, it's a paradigm shift, it takes time.
"
Thus, following the death of his colleague, along with other teachers, "we locked ourselves a little in a bubble, we were the only ones to have experienced that, to understand these feelings".
Until the authorities, who offered tests within the college, "but who actually tested very few people, those who had symptoms, the others were only allowed questions.
"
The incomprehension, once again - "Everyone was disappointed" - while "the people of Crépy were a little afraid".
So much so that a party "invented a little fever, or something like that, to be part of the lot."
All while supporting "a media tornado" which ultimately further isolated the city.
Without providing any answers.
"We cannot experience such an earthquake and return to normal"
“A year later, I still ask myself a lot of questions: what happened at the beginning?
Why could this crisis not be anticipated?
wonders Dr Philippe Pinilo, the general practitioner who took care of the first patient to die of Covid-19.
Why not send patients to private clinics?
We ask ourselves all these questions a lot.
"
“At the start, after the death of the first patient, we say to ourselves:
What if we had known before that the virus was circulating, would we have done otherwise?
continues the healthcare professional.
We cannot go through such an earthquake and get back to normal.
That would be forgetting what happened, we must learn the lessons.
For the first time in my career, I feel professional fatigue.
"