Online translation of an articel in Le Parisien.
According to figures published by INSEE, the mortality rate rose by 63% in the department between the week of 14-20 March and that of 21-27 March.
Plus 63% more deaths in one week. On Thursday evening, during his daily update on the health situation related to Covid-19, Jérôme Salomon, the Director General of Health, had mentioned an excess of mortality in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, without revealing any figures. This Friday, the National Institute of Statistics sheds light on the situation by publishing the number of daily deaths per department in France in March. A table that shows that the percentage of deaths increased by 63% on the 93 between the week of 14 to 20 March and the week of 21 to 27 March.
A rate much higher than those recorded in other departments of the Ile-de-France region, such as Val-d'Oise (+ 47 %), Hauts-de-Seine (+ 36 %) or Paris (+ 32 %). In detail, the epidemic began to accelerate in Seine-Saint-Denis from 24 March. On that day, 625 people lost their lives compared to 551 on the same day last year. A figure which - it should be remembered - takes into account all those who died, whether or not they died from Covid-19. Since then, their number has been increasing daily, reaching 940 on 30 March, compared to 643 on 30 March 2019. In Montreuil, the department's second largest city, the effects are already being felt at the Civil Registry Office, which has noted a doubling of the number of deaths on Wednesday and a fourfold increase on Thursday (compared to 2019).
How is this 63% increase, which the Directorate General of Health has not commented on, to be interpreted? The Ile-de-France Regional Health Agency only reminds us that "excess mortality is the result of a multifactorial analysis and an in-depth study requiring theses and epidemiological articles". While the department's health system is often described as disadvantaged compared to those of other territories, is there a greater risk of dying in Seine-Saint-Denis than elsewhere?
Fewer departures to the province
It would be wrong to conclude that, even if the department has fewer resuscitation places," said Frédéric Adnet, director of Samu 93 and head of the emergency department of the Avicenne hospital in Bobigny. Patients can be transported to Paris or other departments in the inner suburbs. It should not be thought either that the patients would show up later at the emergency services. When they are affected by the coronavirus with forms of respiratory distress, they immediately call the fire brigade or the 15 ".
On the other hand, the doctor believes that "there are more sick people in Seine-Saint-Denis". Firstly because the massive departures of the people of Ile-de-France, just before the start of the confinement, had very little effect on 93: "Here, people don't have second homes. They stayed there and therefore have more recourse to hospital structures," he explains. The head of department believes that the containment measures are also less effective in the territory, especially among the most fragile people. "When I look out the hospital window, I see a huge slum, where 10 people live in a shack without a roof. We are dealing with a very precarious population, homeless people, who have other concerns than confinement. »
What is the profile of the deceased? It will still be several days before we have detailed data from INSEE. For his part, Frédéric Adnet notes that in the stream of seriously ill patients, there are many men suffering from hypertension and overweight. "There may be a genetic determinism," he says.