Bulletin n ° 1
Coronavirus information
Update on March 1, 2020

3 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed as positive in the northern islands by the Pasteur laboratory in Guadeloupe, which is now able to carry out the analyzes. He is a resident of Saint Barthélemy and his parents who came to visit.

The resident of Saint-Barthélémy is currently confined to his home with daily surveillance. His state of health is not worrying.

His parents are in solitary confinement at Saint-Martin hospital and are closely followed. Their state of health is not worrying.

Samples from people who have been in contact are being analyzed or carried out. There are, in addition, two other possible cases with a couple of residents in Saint-Martin who returned from vacation in the Oise area in France. Their samples are being processed.

To date, there are no possible or confirmed cases in Guadeloupe? However, as the Director-General of WHO has said, “the virus has no borders” and the potential risk of having cases worldwide is very high. It should be noted that the strongest possibility of entry of the virus into Guadeloupe is asymptomatic, either visiting or returning home and who will not declare the infection until a few days later.

This is the reason why the strategy to fight against this infection is information on the behaviors to adopt when the symptoms appear (call 15, isolate yourself, have as little contact as possible with your loved ones, wear a mask. when sick), sampling and analysis when the case is classified as possible by the SAMU and / or infectiologists; and finally the care adapted to each case.

What favors the spread are contacts of less than one meter fifty for a period of at least ten minutes but above all contamination by the hands. In fact, the hands are brought to the face on average every minute and encourage the entry of the virus through the eyes, nose and mouth.

So, to avoid spreading, you must absolutely avoid kissing to say hello, avoid shaking hands, wash your hands at least every hour, use hydro alcoholic solutions, sneeze in your elbow, use disposable handkerchiefs. Wearing the mask in the absence of disease is not useful because it is mainly the hands that carry the virus. Masks are useful for sick people when they are in the presence of other people and for caregivers who are in close contact with the sick.

Source: facebook.com/arsguadeloupe/