Gabriel Attal had prepared the ground, Guadeloupe was therefore only waiting for the details of the new restrictions. Extension of the curfew, “non-essential” shops closed: confinement will be tightened on the island from Friday until September 1. The objective is to “break the dynamic” of Covid-19, the prefect Alexandre Rochatte announced on Wednesday.
“The epidemic is becoming catastrophic and the situation is forcing us to take extremely harsh measures now,” admitted the prefect during a press point with the director general of the Regional Health Agency (ARS), Valérie Denux. The epidemic reached “incidence rates never before known anywhere on the territory of the French Republic (…) with almost 1,900 cases per 100,000 inhabitants”, he added, expecting that the 2,000 mark. case will soon be outdated.
To stop this wave, the prefect announced the extension of the curfew. It will no longer start at 8 p.m. but at 7 p.m. and will always end at 5 a.m. In addition, residents will no longer be able to leave a 5 km perimeter around their home without authorization. The so-called “non-essential” shops will have to close from Friday 7 p.m. The beaches will remain accessible, but only for sports, even if the prefect has warned that he could close them this weekend if this measure is not respected.
Regarding tourists, he did not invite them to return as in Martinique, an island where confinement was reinforced on Tuesday: “I do not wish to give instructions for the departure of tourists, but simply to indicate that it seems to me rather irrelevant to ‘consider a tourist stay’ in Guadeloupe.
“Hospitals are overwhelmed”
“The situation is dramatic. We knew it was going to happen, but with that height, that strength, no, we didn’t think so, ”said Valérie Denux. According to her, 17 people have died this week and the delta variant accounts for 90% of cases. “Hospitals are overwhelmed,” she admitted. “We are reorganizing the health system by devoting almost completely our hospitals and our clinics to covid”. “We went from 27 intensive care beds to 67 today. To go further, we are potentially considering going up to 130 beds, ”she explained.
During a Health Defense Council by videoconference, Emmanuel Macron had alerted to the “dramatic situation” of the epidemic in the West Indies, where “the increase in contaminations results in an explosion of serious forms” and a saturation of hospitals. According to him, this situation “implies the unconditional solidarity of the nation” and offers “the cruel demonstration” that “vaccination is the most effective means” against the virus. To show the government’s support, Overseas Minister Sébastien Lecornu is currently in the West Indies. He will be joined this Thursday by Olivier Véran.