" It is non-stop. One is exhausted. Flat. Some of them are dead, may they rest in peace, and several members of my team have been contaminated, " says AFP, distraught, doctor Mohamed Yousfi, head of the department of infectious diseases of the hospital of Boufarik, near Algiers. Like him, doctors algerians are more and more numerous, to launch the alert in order to avoid a disaster. It should be noted that they are in the front line for months and at the end. The doctors algerians are also those who continue to pay a heavy tribute to the Covid-19.
Their cry of alarm is directed first at their fellow countrymen to respect the rules of prevention, and the State then to apply the law and punish offenders. The most affected country in North Africa, Algeria was officially declared nearly 18 000 cases of Covid-19, in which a thousand deaths.
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doctors overwhelmed
It is at Boufarik, in the prefecture of Blida, that has been identified the first outbreak of the epidemic in Algeria. A whole family contaminated after the return from France of algerian nationals invited to a local marriage. "The epidemic has started with us, she is in the process of igniting in us. The hospital is full ", told AFP the infectiologist of Boufarik. Exhausted, some doctors have been victims of syncope, others have had car accidents due to fatigue.
Since the registration of the first case of Covid-19 the 25 February, the health personnel are particularly at risk : 31 caregivers have died, including four doctors and a nurse since the beginning of the week, according to media reports. According to professor Abdelkrim Soukehal, a member of the national science Committee, 1 700 members of the staff of health, all body confused, have been contaminated.
On the social networks of doctors throughout the country, the broadcast of distress calls. "During the whole of the guard, I wore a proud look on my team that was at the bottom... look pissed at all these ignorant people who pay the price of their stupidity... A sad gaze on the victims who had been contaminated by their loved ones... And then a blank look on the situation that continues to worsen, and without awareness', testified on Twitter dr. M. A., infectiologist at Oran (North-West).
Some doctors deplore the lack of resources and call for assistance from the State.
Dr. Yousfi, to him, would help his fellow-members of the public or private sector who are not engaged in services for infectious diseases. And warn : "The day on which all doctors who are in front will be unable to do their work because of exhaustion, there will be no one to care for the sick ".
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Increase contamination...
After a lull during the fasting month of ramadan (24 April-24 may), the authorities had decided to reduce the confinement imposed in mid-march. But the pandemic is again spread quickly in several cities in Algeria : Algiers, Blida, Oran, Biskra (North-East), Sétif (East), Ouargla (South)... " We are going towards disaster. The case does not cease to increase ", says the doctor of Boufarik. His hospital is full and a crowd of about fifty people, including whole families, have to be made every day with the symptoms of the coronavirus. The half is declared positive. With the increase in contamination, the Pasteur Institute of Algeria, which practice tests, is overwhelmed, from 400 samples a day to over 2,000, which delays the results.
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...and denial of the people
" as long As there are citizens who are in denial, selfish, and oblivious to contaminate their surroundings and of what physicians endure because of them, the situation will only get worse ", warns Dr. Yousfi. This denial is widespread in Algeria is " irresponsible and criminal ", accuse-t-il. And he challenges those who doubt the existence of the virus of " coming without a bib in a service Covid-19 ". "We ask the State to enforce the law while maintaining the awareness," especially in the absence of mass screening and vaccine. A month after the first measurements of déconfinement, the government has required the end of June a tightening of sanctions against the offenders. He has advised local authorities to proceed to the "containment targeted" communities and neighborhoods plagued by outbreaks of infection. "The time of education is past, it is time to pay the price for your mistakes, the doctor will not be there to try to catch up to those who are already on the path to say farewell ", said dr. M. A. Oran.
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The necessary recovery of control by the State
will there be a surge in the part of the State ? The answer is not obvious, but this Thursday, July 9, the president of algeria Abdelmadjid Tebboune, has chaired a working meeting with five provincial governors of the most affected regions, including Algiers, Oran (North-West), Biskra (North-East), Sétif (East) and Ouargla (South). To their sides, Prime minister Abdelaziz Djerad, the heads of the security services and members of the scientific Committee to follow the evolution of the pandemic, which depends on the ministry of Health, according to the official agency APS. The authorities have in this context ordered the reconfinement of two communes of the wilaya of El Kala, the border of Tunisia, two days after a similar decision about 18 communes of the wilaya of Sétif. The rebound of the contamination is due, to the authorities, the "sagging" of the population and the "non-compliance" of the rules of prevention and protection. Indeed, the mask-wearing health is mandatory since may 24, and the offenders are sentenced to heavy fines. But many Algerians continue to be refractory to the port of the mask, and measures of distance physical.
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