The Leeward Islands are hard hit by Covid-19 with more than 1,000 cases. At Raiatea hospital, the Covid unit is saturated and the staff increasingly tired. This morning, the President of the Country, Edouard Fritch, and the Minister of Health, Jacques Raynal, went there.
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The observation is clear: the Covid unit at the Uturoa hospital is saturated with 20 hospitalizations for 16 places. Since its opening, the service has been running at full speed. The staff are coping, but gradually run out of steam. “All the health structures of the Department of Health are on the bridge, all the staff are mobilized. We put more staff when possible and necessary. We gathered directly from professionals what their human resource needs might be. There are already nurses arriving and arriving, at least two, and another tomorrow. And there will probably be more. We can go up to 5 additional nurses ” Jaques Raynal, Minister of Health, declared on the spot.
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To unclog the Covid unit, the second community center managed by the municipality in partnership with health, was armed this morning. Patients no longer requiring hospitalization, but a little oxygen will be welcomed there. Two people are already installed there. An initiative hailed by the President of the Country, Edouard Fritch: “This community center will relieve the work of the hospital and the care will also continue here. This is what is important. In Tahiti, in the municipalities, we are trying to make these community centers available to relieve the Taaone hospital ”.
Screenings and vaccinations continue at the Uturoa dispensary every day from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays and from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on weekends. As of Tuesday evening, the Leeward Islands had 1,177 active cases, a figure that is constantly increasing.
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