This announcement by government spokesman Gabriel Attal follows the first air medical evacuations that took place this weekend in the region.
There will be “probably a hundred” transfers next week, said government spokesman Gabriel Attal, who was on the tarmac at Orly to see the evacuations by medical aircraft of two patients aged 33 and 70 from Meaux hospital, leaving for the Bordeaux University Hospital.
The Secretary of State initially mentioned “Several dozens” of transfers. Six per day will be organized by air from Monday and a “more massive operation” will be organized at the end of the week by medicalized TGV mainly towards the Pays de la Loire, New Aquitaine and Occitanie.
“We are doing everything to avoid having to take more restrictive measures for the French”insisted Gabriel Attal, repeating despite everything that “whenever necessary, we will take all appropriate measures”.
Family consent required
Three patients with Covid-19 were transferred by helicopter to hospitals in western France this Saturday, said Frédéric Adnet, director of Samu de Seine-Saint-Denis. They were transferred to Nantes, Angers and Le Mans. Four others will be transferred this Sunday, he added. Two will be transferred to New Aquitaine and one to Pays-de-la-Loire.
In order for these patients to be transferred, it is necessary “that they are in a stable condition” and “the families have given their consent”he said, questioning this Sunday the objective displayed by the government.
This director of Samu had also explained that a more massive evacuation of patients by TGV would only take place in “mid next week” because there is “a huge logistics to put in place”. At the SNCF, where it takes between 48 and 72 hours to equip a train, it was indicated on Friday that no official order had yet been placed.
Highest incidence rate in the region
“Dozens, even hundreds” patients will soon be transferred and deprogramming of organized operations had warned Thursday evening the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran. “The epidemic and health situation in Ile-de-France is of particular concern to us”he admitted during his weekly press conference, stressing that “every 12 minutes, a Parisian is admitted to intensive care”.
The virus is circulating at a high level in France’s most populous region, with 350 cases per 100,000 inhabitants on average each week compared to 220 nationally.
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