Confinement lifted on weekdays and curfew extended to 9 p.m.



In Reunion, confinement will be lifted on weekdays and the curfew pushed back to 9 p.m. on Monday, the prefect announced on Thursday, maintaining the ban on travel outside a radius of 10 km on weekends and to go out between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m.

These measures to curb the virus were taken on July 31 in the face of an epidemic in full resurgence, with an incidence rate exceeding 400 per 100,000 inhabitants and a positivity rate reaching 10%. Thanks to the restrictions and “the involvement of the Reunionese”, “we have for the time being ruled out the risk of an epidemic outbreak”, declared the prefect Jacques Billant during a press conference.

In need of vaccination

“The incidence rate is below 200, the positivity rate below 4% and there are less than 35 Covid beds in intensive care” out of a total of 117 beds, listed Martine Ladoucette, director of the Regional Health Agency (ARS) at the same conference. However, “the situation remains very fragile, at significant risk. It cannot allow the measures to be lifted too quickly, ”said the head of the ARS.

“The Reunionese are still too exposed to a high level of the disease”, she said, underlining the “proportion of admissions in intensive care 50% higher than the metropolis” and a number of deaths “also in progression, with an average of 15 per week ”. As of August 26, 49.9% of the population had a complete vaccination schedule. An insufficient figure, according to the ARS, to reach the objective of 80 to 90% of Reunionese vaccinated in mid-November. The ARS now sets the objective of crossing this threshold “by mid-December”.

Since the start of the epidemic in March 2020 on the island, 332 patients have died from the disease, including 238 in the last five months.



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