A year ago, we were confined, with only three cases on the clock, in Reunion. A year later, with nearly a thousand cases per week, without counting already nearly a hundred deaths (including about sixty Reunionese, young and old), Reunion was placed under curfew. . Only!
A curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., at first. Then advanced to 6 p.m. since the start of the school holidays, two weeks ago. Ineffective measure since the cases increase crescendo. And our Réa services, which also welcome “evasans”, are on the verge of asphyxiation. This virus, which came from nowhere else, therefore has a mysterious side. A year ago, it was said that it came from the Pangolin, or from the bats sold in the markets of Wuhan. Others suggested that the virus had escaped from a laboratory still on the Wuhan side in China. It is clear that a year later, nobody really knows where this virus comes from.
Weird too, in the sense that it can infect a person but without affecting other members of the same family. A very silly example, and examples like that, there must be hundreds, to put it mildly. Take the case of this gentleman who lives in a small town on Reunion. He “nabbed” the damn virus. How? ‘Or’ What ? He does not know it. Although athletic and healthy, he ended up in a mess. He was hospitalized in the Covid department at the CHU Nord and taken care of by dedicated teams. His vital prognosis is certainly not engaged but he has suffered a lot and is still suffering a lot. This virus is weird, I told you, since his son who took care of him, before his hospitalization, was tested “negative”. Good for him, of course. On the other hand, the friend of the gentleman tested “positive” was for her part also tested “positive” not for Covid-19 but for the South African variant. Ditto for the two children of the latter. For the record, you should know that the first time the gentleman’s girlfriend went to see her doctor about her state of health, the doctor told her that “it was not very serious: dengue, nothing more “. The rest, we told you. Another similar case: a lady tested “positive”. But in the same house, her husband and daughter tested “negative”. Reason why, I tell you that this virus is mysterious, weird.
Already around sixty deaths in Reunion, and not only the elderly!
What is certain, however, is that this virus can be very dangerous because it is deadly. It kills, and not only old people as we might have believed at the start of the crisis. In Reunion, in the space of these last three days, I know two people, including an acquaintance, who died of it. Two men aged 52 and 48, respectively. Died of Covid for the first, and of the South African variant for the second. It’s cold in the back, especially when you know the people in question.
It is a virus that is also driving our decision-makers crazy; Which do not really know where to turn and have forced to take measures as confused as they are contradictory. I passed, yesterday, Sunday morning March 21, 2021, in front of Carrefour de Sainte-Suzanne, which was open. Next to it, “Monsieur Bricolage” was also open. Good for DIY enthusiasts! Next door, Décathlon was closed. Ditto for the stores in the shopping mall inside Carrefour Sainte-Suzanne. Went to La Réserve in Sainte-Marie (Leclerc). Inside it was crowded and the stores in the mall were all open. Then went to Run Market Sainte-Marie, three minutes as the crow flies, and there all the shops in the mall were closed except those selling food and drink. Yes, I know, it’s a question of area, the number of square meters. But where is the consistency? I said to myself, rather than letting the crowds gather in one large retail space, it might have been smarter to let that same crowd disperse into all the supermarkets if their gallery had been left open. Why would we have the right to go buy a hammer or a saw from “Monsieur Bricolage” in the middle of Covid but not shorts, a T-shirt, a dress, pants or sneakers at Decathlon or elsewhere?
Why can we go sunbathing on a crowded beach when at the same time we are not allowed to go picnic in a forest or in areas reserved for? Why can we stick to each other in front of the cash desks of certain large retail outlets or in rounds of batay roosters as I saw yesterday in some towns on the island when it is forbidden to eat a tray? under a wooden foot? Why can we eat in a restaurant for lunch without the risk of catching the Covid when there is a risk in the evening in the same restaurant? Why can we travel in crowded buses (reason why the drivers have demonstrated twice in front of the prefecture) when we are not allowed to stroll in a shopping mall while respecting social distancing? Why is the Ile-de-France region confined when workers have to leave to go to work on pain of having their day cut off? Can we confine while authorizing the work? Why in metropolitan France, when the incidence rate is exploding day by day, the inhabitants of France (including Ile-de-France residents) have the right to “move” until 7 p.m. within a radius of 10 kilometers, whereas in Reunion, we are forced to return to the hut before 6 pm? Strictly forbidden to step outside after this time!
Today is the first day of school in Reunion. Because of our legendary traffic jams, and given that school leaves at 4 p.m., or even 5 p.m. for high schools, can we respect the curfew at 6 p.m.? Shouldn’t this curfew be pushed back to 7 p.m. or even 8 p.m.? Wouldn’t it be necessary to completely reconfine (not a real-false reconfinement as in the Ile-de-France region!) In Reunion, for a certain time, to try to stop the circulation of this damn virus? There is the vaccine, you will tell me! But not enough for everyone! And not always very reliable either! All we have to do is respect the barrier gestures, wear our mask properly (even if it means catching a few buttons or allergies), and wash our hands well. Tell yourself that even those who lead us do not know (any more) on which foot to dance with this damn virus that is turning us all in jerks.
Y.M.
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