The health situation in Guadeloupe, confined since last Wednesday, continues to "
deteriorate very sharply
" with an "
unprecedented number
" of intensive care admissions which led to the first medical evacuations to the metropolis, announced Friday August 6, the prefecture de Guadeloupe and the Regional Health Agency in a joint press release.
Hospitalized patients in Guadeloupe CovidTracker
Patients in intensive care in Guadeloupe CovidTracker
"
The incidence rate is alarming with 1,108.6 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over 7 rolling days against 875.6 cases last week
", indicates the
press
release which reports 4,178 new cases recorded in four days, and four deaths in Guadeloupe and one in Saint-Martin.
The positivity rate also increased to 24.6% for 16,968 people tested.
"
This exponential growth in cases puts our hospital system in great difficulty
," the statement added.
Thursday, "
an unprecedented number of resuscitation entries was recorded in a single day and the triggering of medical evacuations to the metropolis began,
" said the authorities, who report two evacuations on Thursday and two others scheduled for Saturday.
A "considerable acceleration"
On this single day, the Pointe-à-Pitre hospital recorded ten additional Covid and three non-Covid intensive care admissions, while in recent days, the maximum number of intensive care admissions was four per day.
"
The acceleration is therefore considerable
", insists the press release which specifies that among the patients in intensive care, "
none is vaccinated
".
For Doctor Marc Valette, head of the intensive care unit at the CHU de Guadeloupe, the island "
has switched to disaster medicine
". “
The situation is a crisis situation, of appalling intensity, which we have never known until then,
” he says, stressing that “
the care of patients with Covid, who happen to us every days, is done to the detriment of other patients who need surgical management or who have chronic diseases
”.
To date, 45 out of 48 intensive care beds are occupied at the CHU, including 36 for Covid patients. Faced with the outbreak of the epidemic, the regional prefect decided to take new measures and announced the closure of all restaurants from Monday at 8 p.m. Until now, despite the lockdown, unlike bars, restaurants were open at noon. Take-out and home delivery will remain possible.
