This system was triggered in advance, because after the infection rate increased in July, health authorities feared an overload in hospitals.
After Corsica, PACA and Occitanie, the white plan was launched on Tuesday in all health institutions in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, due to the health situation linked to Covid that puts the “hospital system at risk of saturation”, The Provincial and Provincial Health Agency announced in a press release.
“Les indicateurs dans notre région restent toujours élevés. Pour la période du 1er au 7 août, le taux d’incidence est de 198,9/100,000 habitants, bien au-dessus du seuil d’alerte de 50/100.000 habitants”, est -he is writing. And “the effect of these high infection rates with repercussions two to three weeks later on hospitalization, should continue to increase.”
From 50 patients in intensive care to 100 patients per week
Therefore, the white plan was launched in this area with the logic of anticipation for hospitals “in order to be able to arm a sufficient number of beds to accommodate the new hospitalizations that will occur in the coming days,” the press release explains. Their intensive care units are not currently full, although the beds are filling up quickly.
“In one week, more than 100 patients are hospitalized in the area, including 50 in intensive care,” Benoit Elbaud, director of ARS Nouvelle-Aquitaine, explained Tuesday on BFMTV. “We went from 50 patients in intensive care for Covid to 100 in one week on 500 intensive care beds in the region.”
He notes that the infection rate “has tended to stabilize in the region” in recent days. However, “the wave of new patients in the hospital will arrive throughout the month of August, linked to the very large increase in the infection rate in July.”
Unequal status according to circles
In detail, all departments in the region are not in the same boat regarding the circulation of Covid-19. The most affected is the Gironde, with an incidence rate of 284.4and the Pyrenees Atlantic (280). But Creuse only shows an incidence of 37, and Haute-Vienne of 63.
“Coastal provinces are the hardest hit because they are tourist sections with more mixed population,” explains Benoit Elbody. That is why the virus is spreading more, but we see in other departments that it is still increasing.”
The increase in hospitalizations, according to him, is due to the fact that the vaccination rate has not yet been completed among the most vulnerable groups, who are more susceptible to infection with the dangerous Covid virus, and therefore are transferred to the hospital.
“We still have a very large number of vulnerable people who are not vaccinated, 10 to 15%, infection rates are around 100, there is an influx of hospitals,” explains ARS Director Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
