After the West Indies, it is French Polynesia's turn to return to containment and curfew.
All five archipelagos have been placed under curfew and the islands of Tahiti and Moorea will be confined, only on Sunday for now, in order to curb the Covid-19 epidemic, announced Wednesday evening (Thursday morning at Paris) the High Commissioner Dominique Sorain.
The reinstatement of a 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew, announced on Monday, comes into effect Wednesday evening at midnight in this Pacific overseas territory which had already been subject to restrictions since mid-July. such as the ban on concerts, exhibitions and weddings in public establishments.
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Containment that could be extended
"Containment can be extended to other days of the week"
if the health situation deteriorates further, said Dominique Sorain during a statement in Papeete.
These measures were made possible by the declaration of a state of health emergency in Polynesia via a decree adopted Wednesday in the Council of Ministers.
Access to the beaches will be prohibited in particular.
After several months of very weak circulation of the virus, the epidemic experienced a sudden resurgence in early August in Polynesia because of the Delta variant.
The incidence rate is now 1,524 per 100,000 inhabitants and 173 people sick with Covid-19 are hospitalized, including 28 in intensive care, while no Polynesian was hospitalized for Covid in mid-July.
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"Dozens of daily hospitalizations"
"We are forced to push back the walls because we have dozens of daily hospitalizations"
worried to AFP Dr. Charlotte Courtois, non-intensive care Covid referent at the Papeete Hospital Center.
The Delta variant also affects 24 islands or atolls less equipped than Tahiti in health structures, such as Huahine in the Leeward Islands, or Rurutu in the Austral archipelago.
The most serious cases are evacuated by plane to the hospital center.
But air resources are no longer sufficient.
And human resources are also lacking.
About twenty Caledonian nurses and twelve others from the national health reserve will come and help the hospital.
The epidemiologist Henri-Pierre Mallet noted Wednesday 4,269 active cases for a population of 280,000 inhabitants.
According to him, 85% of hospitalized patients are not vaccinated.
The Covid-19 has killed 181 people in French Polynesia since the start of the epidemic.