Two medical TGVs from Paris arrived in Brittany, carrying 36 serious cases of Coronavirus Covid-19. The goal is to unclog hospitals in Île-de-France.
Two medical TGVs evacuated Wednesday 1st April 2020 from Paris to Brittany 36 patients with coronavirus in intensive care, found journalists from AFP, the first major operation of this kind from Ile-de-France, now the region most affected by the epidemic.
Les #TGV médicalisés vers la Bretagne sont partis de la gare Paris-Austerlitz. À leurs bords, 36 malades du #COVIDー19.
Merci @MartinHirsch de votre reconnaissance envers nos agents, c’est une grande fierté pour le @GroupeSNCF que de participer à cette solidarité territoriale. pic.twitter.com/gwzzppbTEs— Alain Krakovitch (@alainkrakovitch) April 1, 2020
Continued operations?
The first TGV, which arrived at around 2:15 p.m. in Saint-Brieuc, is to send ten patients to the Brest University Hospital, eight to the Saint-Brieuc Hospital Center and six to the army training hospital in Brest, according to a press release from l ‘ARS Brittany.
The second, who finished his journey around 2:30 p.m. in Rennes, is to bring twelve patients to the hospital of the Breton capital.
“It is not impossible that we can continue medical evacuations,” said Stéphane Mulliez, director-general of ARS Brittany during a press briefing in Rennes.
“There is a strong need for national solidarity to support the most affected regions.”
Accueil de 36 patients franciliens covid 19 ce jour à Rennes, Saint-Brieuc et Brest. Fier de la mobilisation des soignants bretons dans le cadre du dispositif de solidarité nationale. #COVIDー19#Arsbretagne pic.twitter.com/vTDLGnkQut
— Mulliez Stephane (@MulliezS) April 1, 2020
This evacuation operation aims to relieve hospitals in Ile-de-France, where a third of the 3,523 deaths due to Covid-19 recorded in hospitals in France were recorded.
Capacity in the Ile-de-France resuscitation services is reaching saturation point. The 36 patients come from ten public and private hospitals in the region.
Nine medical teams at the bedside
Tuesday, the director-general of the AP-HP, Martin Hirsch, had stressed that with 870 patients of the Covid-19 in intensive care, “the number of patients tangent the number of beds available” in the Ile-de-France university hospital centre.
On board the trains, the patients are taken care of by nine medical teams each made up of a doctor, an intern, a nurse anaesthetist and three nurses, Parisian nursing teams and from the establishments that will receive them.
Several ambulances left the two Breton stations, noted AFP journalists present on the spot.
Six people with Covid-19 are also to be transferred from northeast France to Toulouse today.
Coronavirus patients have already been transferred in recent days from the Grand Est region, the first region to be severely affected, to other regions of France and to Germany, by TGV, helicopters and military aircraft.
In France, the virus killed 3,523 people and 52,128 confirmed cases , according to the latest report, Tuesday 31st March 2020.
