In eight days, “Covid activity has tripled, with 90 patients currently hospitalized” in Mulhouse, alert Thursday, December 2 on franceinfo Marc Noizet, head of emergency at the hospital, and the Samu du Haut-Rhin. The white plan was triggered in the hospitals of Mulhouse and Colmar, and operations “non-vital, or not urgent”, about 15 to 20%, are delayed at the Mulhouse hospital, reports Marc Noizet.
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The incidence rate in the department has been rising sharply since November, and has exceeded 400 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (against a little more than 300 nationally), or eight times more than the alert threshold . Hospital blood pressure reached 43%, while Haut-Rhin has a vaccination rate (at least one dose) more than six points lower than the national average.
Marc Noizet has observed for ten days a “25% increase in the number of calls to the SAMU, of which 20% relate to issues related to Covid”. To emergencies, “the flow remains compliant” and “relatively stable activity” but about 10% of patients passing through emergency rooms are affected by Covid-19 and “require, for a large part of them, to be hospitalized”.
The triggering of the white plan leads to new meetings of the crisis unit, to “anticipate and ensure the missions of the hospital”, to know “to maintain an activity for non-Covid patients, to be able to continue to operate on them, to treat them properly”, while leaving “sufficient space available to accommodate Covid patients in the hospital”.
The fifth epidemic wave is all the more worrying at Mulhouse hospital as many caregivers are still suspended because they have not been vaccinated. At the end of September, the white plan had already been triggered locally, for lack of caregivers, 170 unvaccinated employees being forced to stay at home. “Since then, we have been in great difficulty, with 15% of staff suspended or on sick leave”, informs Marc Noizet, which has resulted in temporary bed closures.