Nice, which received a visit from the Minister of Health this weekend, will be partially re-defined, just like the rest of the Alpes-Maritimes coast. “We would have liked Olivier Véran to come to Dunkirk where there are the same concerns as in Nice”, launched this Tuesday on franceinfo Paul Christophe, deputy for the 14th district of the North, member of the Agir-ensemble group. In Dunkirk, there are 900 positive cases for Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants, against 700 in Nice,
Franceinfo: What is the situation in Dunkirk?
Paul Christophe : We have tested more recently, but it should be remembered that the alert threshold is at 250 cases, so we are well above it. We have 70% English variant, it is increasing. The peculiarity is that this variant is much more contaminating and that it kills more at the same time, so we have a lot more arrivals in the emergency room. We are saturated with hospitalizations for Covid, in intensive care but also in dedicated services. There is therefore a reaction to be implemented.
Would you like measurements identical to those in Nice?
I was online yesterday morning with Olivier Véran to share our concern. About ten days ago, we tried a first alert. The situation was already beginning to develop, we were around 600 cases per 100,000, today we are at 900. We were already advocating at the time an early closure of schools and colleges. There is a wave coming to us and we are trying to curb this spread and ensure that we do not contaminate the rest of the territory either.
What did Olivier Véran tell you?
He told us of his concern about the health situation in the North. We notice that he moved to the East, in Moselle, to Nice, we would have liked him to come to Dunkirk, where there is the same sun – I reassure him – but there are mostly the same concerns. Should we duplicate the same measures as in Nice? It is a reflection that is on the table. He told me that a Defense Council was going to be organized to settle the situation. We remain pending to this day.
Why did it go so quickly to Nice and not to Dunkirk?
It’s a good question. Nice is perhaps a slightly more major tourist destination compared to what we experience in Dunkirk. However, the Dunkirk beaches are the destination beaches for the entire Lille basin. The Nord department is the most populous in France with 2.6 million inhabitants and as such, when the weather is nice, people come to the beaches of Dunkirk. So we also have a mixing of populations. We also note that we are a crossroads: we are connected with the United Kingdom, Belgium, we are a transit territory. These are aggravating factors.
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