Minister of Health Olivier Véran repeated it on Sunday evening in France 2’s 8 p.m. newspaper, France is not experiencing an epidemic of coronavirus.
In the Alpes-Maritimes, no case has been detected but the authorities want to take the lead. An emergency meeting takes place in the prefecture, it started around 10 am on Monday with the prefect, officials from the Agence Régionale de Santé PACA and many elected officials from the department, including Christian Estrosi.
The purpose of this meeting is to take stock of the means implemented by the State in Nice and in our department.
Nice hospital is getting ready
ThePACA Regional Health Agency announced on Sunday that University Hospital Center of Nice will now be able to carry out tests for Coronavirus Covid-19. He will be able to perform the tests if necessary in the coming days.
The Minister of Health had hoped Sunday the increase in “number of laboratories equipped with diagnostic tests to reach a capacity of several thousand analyzes per day and throughout the territory, compared to 400 today“.
Today in France there are 70 hospitals mobilized in the face of a possible coronavirus epidemic.
Elected officials call for action
At the border, the pharmacies of the city of Menton have almost no more protective masks available, many Italians have come to stock up in France.
The mayor of the city, Jean-Claude Guibal, asked the authorities “the establishment of an emergency health plan“A request resumed on the Facebook account of the town hall.
For his part, deputy Les Républicains de Nice Eric Ciotti also asked for measures. He indicates that he wrote to the Prime Minister for “ask him for an emergency plan & reinforced controls at the Italian border“.
#Coronavirus To protect the French I wrote to the Prime Minister to ask him for an emergency plan & reinforced controls at the Italian border
The Alpes-Maritimes register a daily flow of tens of thousands of people with Italyhttps://t.co/8Q8mdoAM0S
– Eric Ciotti (@ECiotti) February 23, 2020
—
Main focus 4 hours away
The main focus of coronavirus in Italy is located below Milan, around the town of Codogno. The area is only 3h50 drive from Nice as shown on this map.
Few people travel this route, but every day tens of thousands of people, including many workers, cross the border with Italy. Faced with these requests, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran replied “A virus does not stop at borders.“The Italian border will therefore not be closed despite the rapid progression of COVID-19 in this country.
What is COVID-19 Coronavirus?
Coronaviruses are part of a family of viruses that can cause a wide range of diseases. In humans, these diseases range from the common cold to a severe lung infection, responsible for acute respiratory distress.
Two coronaviruses have caused serious epidemics in humans: the SARS responsible for a global epidemic between November 2002 and July 2003 and the Mers-CoV identified for the first time in 2012 in the Middle East. In early January 2020, the discovery of a new coronavirus (COVID-19) linked to grouped cases of pneumonia was announced by the Chinese health authorities and the WHO.
—
