The day after the visit of the Health Minister, Olivier Véran, to Nice, the Prefect of Alpes-Maritimes, Bernard Gonzalez, presented a strengthened action plan to combat the Covid-19 epidemic, including the adoption of territorialized health measures and the acceleration of the vaccination campaign. The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, has also given a first assessment following this acceleration that was in effect throughout last weekend. An assessment that seems visibly satisfactory.
The assessment established at the end of this second weekend of partial lockdown shows that the vast majority of the inhabitants of Alpes-Maritimes demonstrated responsibility and civic-mindedness.
Assessment of compliance with current health measures
The partial lockdown was respected in all areas subject to this measure, as well as the curfew, which remains in force daily from 6 PM to 6 AM throughout the department. The enhanced control operations of last weekend have been extended. Internal security forces were once again strongly mobilized throughout the weekend. Between Friday 6 PM and Sunday 5 PM, the police and gendarmerie services checked 15,081 people. These controls resulted in 956 fines.
In general, the checks conducted showed that the inhabitants of Alpes-Maritimes adhered to the rules by limiting their movements, going out with the properly completed exemption certificate for an authorized reason, wearing masks, and avoiding gatherings.
Assessment of the vaccination campaign
The Government has decided to accelerate the pace of the vaccination campaign in the areas most affected by the epidemic. An exceptional allocation of 13,190 additional doses was thus made available to the Alpes-Maritimes department at the end of the week. All available stocks have also been utilized.
Bernard Gonzalez, Prefect of Alpes-Maritimes, particularly wishes to thank all the elected officials who helped mobilize all the actors of this success in an exemplary manner: health professionals, firefighters, volunteers from accredited civil security associations, state and local agents.
During this weekend, 18,446 inhabitants of Alpes-Maritimes received their first vaccine injection. To date, 87,855 residents of the department have been vaccinated. 36,981 of them have received the second injection. The incidence rate has slightly decreased (523/100,000 inhabitants, compared to 627/100,000 on February 26, 2021), but it remains significantly higher than the national rate (220/100,000). In the hospitals of the department, the situation remains extremely tense. Currently, 432 Covid-19 patients are hospitalized in Alpes-Maritimes, and 91 are in intensive care. Despite 12 medical evacuations carried out over the last two weeks, the occupancy rate of intensive care beds is still very concerning (127%).
A comprehensive assessment of the measures announced on February 22 will be made mid-week. The analysis of the evolution of the health situation will help inform the decisions that need to be made for the coming weeks.
“We will soon see a significant change”
During a visit to the vaccination center at the Palais des Expositions on Saturday, the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, returned to the site to assess the progress of the weekend vaccination campaign across the metropolitan area. Following the acceleration of vaccination with the goal of vaccinating 12,000 people, 13,048 vaccinations were conducted in total over 48 hours in Nice and its metropolis. A record in France.
13,048 vaccinations!
An exceptional outcome for these 48 hours in #Nice06 and in the @MetropoleNCA. Thanks to nearly 700 people mobilized throughout this weekend: staff, volunteer doctors and nurses, volunteers. pic.twitter.com/imgn7MZbNa— Christian Estrosi (@cestrosi) March 7, 2021
The mayor of the city of Nice is extremely pleased with this result and plans to continue in this direction to further combat the pandemic. He also seized the opportunity to thank and acknowledge the 700 volunteers, agents, firefighters, nurses, and volunteer doctors mobilized throughout the metropolis for their help in this mass vaccination effort.
“We were in a second weekend of lockdown. Our logic, in agreement with the government, was to prevent the spread of the virus while simultaneously increasing our citizens’ level of protection. I am convinced that, with the numbers that will soon be published, we will be able to note a significant change compared to the very high situation we experienced two weeks ago.” explained the mayor of Nice, expressing his optimism following this acceleration that met everyone’s expectations.
Christian Estrosi quickly mentioned that he would soon be vaccinated, giving priority to the older residents as initially planned since the launch of the vaccination campaign. Soon, new numbers on the rate of coronavirus spread will be released during the week.
