The number of new cases of Covid has almost tripled in one week and continues to progress steadily in Guadeloupe, where the Delta variant remains in the majority, announced the ARS and the prefecture on Wednesday, December 29.
Some 543 cases were recorded from December 20 to 26, against 203 the previous week and “nearly 850 cases were identified in less than 3 days” for the start of the week from December 27 to January 2, said Valérie Denux, director general of the Regional Health Agency (ARS), during a press conference. “The situation this week is really very very worrying”, she explained.
The Delta variant remains in the majority but the presence of the Omicron variant detected for the first time on December 17 “could change this report in the next few days”. Two 76-year-old women died in Guadeloupe and Saint-Martin.
“It’s going very, very fast”, highlighted Valerie Denux, comparing this acceleration to that experienced during the fourth wave, which had hit the archipelago hard between July and October. “From mid-July to mid-October”, the Covid-19 epidemic has caused 822 deaths in total in Guadeloupe, according to the authorities, who have carried out an investigation taking into account all the death certificates “with the Covid mention”.
# Covid_19 The positivity rate is clearly increasing to 3.1% with a value of 144.1 / 100,000 inhabitants, the incidence rate again exceeds the alert threshold. 543 new positive cases. 2 patients died in week 51 pic.twitter.com/vrLIby8D17
– Prefect of Guadeloupe (@ Prefet971) December 29, 2021
Vaccination in Guadeloupe is progressing very slowly with less than 47% of those over 18 having had a first dose. However, out of 16,500 health professionals subject to compulsory vaccination, “nearly 94%” are “compliance” and “of the 6% non-compliant, half of them are not bedside caregivers”, underlines the ARS. One “support committee for suspended staff” was put in place, aimed at supporting staff who are subject to compulsory vaccination and who have refused it. “At this point, more than a thousand people are suspended”, specifies the prefecture, and among them, 569 have already registered with the cell.
The French overseas ministry announced last week that health workers in the Antilles refractory to compulsory vaccination would be “suspended” on December 31 and could “move towards a new profession” via a “reconversion cell”.