ARS Territorial Director Paul Guibert (left), Préfet Vincent Berton, and Louis-Constant Fleming Hospital Director Marie-Antoinette Lampis (right) at a press conference Tuesday.
MARIGOT--With Regional Health Agency ARS reporting a deterioration in the COVID-19 situation for the past two weeks on the French side of St. Maarten/St. Martin, Préfet Vincent Berton has called for sanitary rules to be respected, including mask-wearing and limiting physical contact (hugging, etc.) to stem spread of the virus.
He said on Tuesday that he did not want to sound “alarmist” and has not reintroduced any major restrictive measures, but the population must redouble their vigilance.
ARS’s latest health bulletin for July 4-10 (week 27) indicates 157 new cases compared to 143 a week ago. As of July 11 (week 28 in progress) there are 28 new cases from 217 tests, for a total 185 active cases. Recoveries are not mentioned.
Louis-Constant Fleming Hospital currently has two COVID-19 patients, but none in the St. Barths hospital. There is no change to the COVID-19 death toll; 64 in St. Martin and six in St. Barths. There were no evacuations in week 27.
ARS Territorial Director Paul Guibert said the positivity rate had jumped from 3-4% to now 12% and noted the resurgence is also experienced in France.
Hospital Director Marie-Antoinette Lampis said the resurgence has had an impact, not on capacity for patients, but on specialist care; for example, an anaesthetist and two surgeons tested positive on returning from France.
Guibert quoted the estimated vaccination figures for St. Martin from Santé Publique France (SPF): 51% per cent for one dose, 48% for two doses, and 23% for the third (booster) jab.
