FactualDemoralized business leaders, “exhausted” caregivers… While the peak of the epidemic is expected in mid-July, the situation is already very tense in the area. The Minister of Overseas launched a call for volunteers to caregivers in mainland France.
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“I was on call the weekend of June 13 and 14, when the wave arrived at the hospital in Cayenne”, relates doctor LoÏc Epelboin, infectious disease specialist at the infectious and tropical diseases unit of the Cayenne hospital center. “We thought we couldn’t do it. In forty-eight hours, we have gone from 26 beds to more than 70 beds dedicated to Covid patients ”, he explains. To cope, other services were mobilized, and six patients were evacuated to the West Indies. Coming to Guyana in 2007 for his internship, this 41-year-old metropolitan doctor stayed on the territory, because he “Smelled more useful than in Paris”, where he began his studies.
“We may well have prepared for it, the situation is very tense”, summarizes the infectiologist. Friday, June 26, Guyana had 3,270 cases of Covid-19, a tripling in two weeks, on a territory of 283,000 inhabitants. If there have been six deaths in seven days, the death rate remains low – ten deaths in total – compared to the number of cases. “We benefited from the first studies and experiences of our colleagues from mainland France”, explains Loïc Epelboin.
In an area that looks like a medical desert (half as many generalists as the national average per 100,000 inhabitants, three and a half times less specialists), the teams stick together. “Many colleagues from other departments came to help us”, testifies Mr. Epelboin, who also evokes the reinforcements of the sanitary reserve, of the doctors coming from the Antilles and the Hexagon, or expected soon. It remains to be maintained over time, the epidemic peak being expected in mid-July. “The teams are exhausted”, worries an employee of the hospital.
“We need personnel to arm resuscitation capacities, this is our difficulty”, Annick Girardin, the overseas minister, said on Wednesday after a two-day trip there. “The need for human resources goes beyond a hundred people”, she added, launching “A solemn appeal to caregivers and hospitals in France”, to bring “Very many volunteers”.
« Plan Marshall »
The State has bet in particular on strengthening resuscitation and screening capacities – going from 200 to 800 tests per day -, support for communities for the distribution of masks and prevention, and reinforced border control. After a confinement from March 16 to May 11, when the number of cases was low, Guyana was subjected to a curfew in the evening, then on weekends. Wednesday, June 24, Minister Girardin announced a tightening of measures: extension of the curfew from 5 p.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday to Monday 5 a.m. in the most affected municipalities, confinement of twenty-one neighborhoods at risk, wearing a mandatory mask in closed spaces, closing bars and restaurants, banning the consumption of alcohol on public roads, etc. Decisions taken following the restart of the epidemic, under the effect of festive relaxation and cases imported from Brazil – the neighboring state of Amapa is the most affected in the country in number of cases per inhabitant.
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