Coronavirus. Eight new sources of contamination in the Grand Est

Eight new outbreaks of coronavirus have been identified in the region Great East since May 11, first day of deconfinement in France, the Regional Health Agency (ARS) and the regional prefecture announced on Tuesday.

Four departments in the region are concerned: one cluster was identified in Haute-Marne, “Four in Moselle, two in the Bas-Rhin, one in Meuse “, listed Marie-Ange Desailly-Chanson, executive director of ARS du Grand-Est at a press conference. The number of cases per cluster ranges from three to sixteen maximum for one of the outbreaks identified in Moselle.

Among these eight new sources of contamination, four are in nursing homes, one in a sanitary establishment, one in a social welfare structure for children, one in one medico-social establishment for disabled people and the last in a military grip. According to France Bleu Lorraine Nord, it is said to be the Sarreguemines gendarmerie, where eight soldiers tested positive for Covid-19.

Coronavirus: the gendarmerie of Sarreguemines is one of the 5 epidemic outbreaks revealed by the ARS on Tuesday. #Moselle #gendarmerie #coronavirus https://t.co/kc5mh7SNnm

– France Bleu Lorraine Nord (@fblorrainenord) May 19, 2020

The other situations to which Public Health France ensures to bring a particular attention, are the situations with more than ten people having been in contact with a patient. There are two on Tuesday in the Grand Est, in the Meuse and Moselle, said Ms. Desailly-Chanson.

The director of ARS remained cautious about a link between the appearance of these new cases and the start of deconfinement. Possibly some existed before, the average incubation time of the virus being seven to ten days.

Le Grand Est is classified as a red zone

Since the implementation of the “contact tracing” device on May 13, the Grand Est has registered just over 550 positive patients, who have been in contact with around 1,200 people, according to Maxime Rouchon, coordinator of the device for the Caisse primary health insurance in the region.

Sick people have the choice between isolating themselves at home or in an outside structure, usually a hotel. This second option was only chosen by two people in the Bas-Rhin, said the prefect of this department and of the Grand Est region Josiane Chevalier.

During the cartography presented by the government on May 7, a few days before the deconfinement, the Grand Est was classified in red, that is to say in a live area, like the rest of the northeast quarter of France. .

A reassessment of this classification will not be published until early June, said the prefect. However, as of Monday evening, the proportion of emergency visits for suspected Covid-19 has dropped below 6%, a sign of low circulation of the virus, and the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care has decreased to 233, or half of the beds available, according to ARS data.

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