Lunchtime News Thursday 2nd April 2020

Lunchtime news Thursday 2nd April 2020 

40 medical staff from the PACA volunteer for areas less fortunate in France -  Following the Regional Health Agency's call on Wednesday 1st April, for medical staff from the PACA region to volunteer in those areas badly affected by the virus in France. 40 medical staff have already left to offer their services. 

The situation in these two regions is extremely tense. In the Ile-de-France and Grand-Est, everything that could be done in addition, to arm these hospitals has been yet, these regions seriously lack human resources. The threshold of 1,000 dead was crossed on Tuesday for the Grand Est alone. And patient evacuations continue on medical TGV's to relieve overcrowded hospitals.

Many transfers are organized to regions less affected by the epidemic, in particular to the west of France, Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg. 1,015 dead in the Great East compared to104 in Paca as of March 31st says the Regional Health Agency which hopes to recruit 100 voluteers from the PACA region putting in place the following number: 04 13 55 90 27. 

Help in the region - A regional listening and psychological support unit has been made available: 04.97.13.50.03 is a listening platform set up jointly by the city of Nice and medical specialist, from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. The call is free.  

In Monaco, Monegasque residents who wish can dial the number 92 05 55 00 every day from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. This is also a dedicated telephone platform for listening and anonymous support. The professionals will direct the callers either to volunteers of the Monegasque Red Cross, or psychologists, or, if necessary, to a doctor, in connection with the Medico-Psychological Emergency Unit of the Princess Grace Hospital Center.  

And four therapists (sophrologists, specialists in hypnosis or art therapy) have created a Facebook page. They are from Biot, La Roquette-sur-Siagne in the Alpes-Maritimes, Avignon (Vaucluse) or Sète (Hérault). They offer a daily workshop to de-stress. There are two ways to contact them: a message via the page or at the following address support.psy.coronavirus@gmail.com. 

 

Quality of air - According to a study from Atmosud the levels of nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere are in free fall in Nice. Confinement does not only prevent the spread of the coronavirus but by reducing travel, it contributes to a dramatic improvement in air quality. This is particularly the case in Nice. AtmoSud observes in its latest report "a significant drop in all pollutants of" automotive "in connection with that of road traffic,

False websites selling chloroquine tablets - 70 webistes have been removed by police due to selling chloroquine, presented by some "as a miracle remedy for the conronavirus". Most of the sites closed by the gendarmes were empty shells. They referred to other sites hosted abroad which offered chloroquine tablets at one euro each. Almost 10 times its price in France. Chloroquine has been the subject of many debates on Covid-19. For the time being, France reserves this antimalarial for the treatment of the most serious cases a decision which for some has caused an "outcry" as the professeur behind the treatment, Didier Raoult has specified that the treatment was "only valid at the onset of the virus and shoud not be used in critical cases". 

Investigators had identified many suspicious sites as part of the scam which were recently created and hosted in France. All automatically linked to other sites, registered abroad, in China or in Russia. They offered tablets of chloroquine at 1 euro each when in French pharmacies, the package of 30 tablets is sold at around 4 euros. Or just under 14 cents per tablet. 

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