Retro 2021. Vaccination, health pass … Story of one (more) Covid in Toulouse
Through Anthony Assemat
Published on
Toulouse news rewinds the thread of the health crisis in Toulouse and Haute-Garonne in 2021.
January: start of vaccination
48 Ehpad (Accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people) and 10 USLD (Long-term care units) were concerned from the first week of vaccination in Occitanie.
In Toulouse, the residents of the Gérontopôle were among the first to receive the Pfizer vaccine against Covid 19.
At the start of 2021, vaccination of people under the age of 18 was excluded. January 5, Régine, 71, was vaccinated, becoming the first person in Toulouse to receive a dose of the vaccine developed by Pfizer. “I had the flu virus when I was 20,” she confided. I think it’s necessary to treat yourself well. I immediately agreed to be vaccinated, it is essential. “
On January 15, the first two cases of the English variant were detected in Haute-Garonne.
February: massacre in nursing homes
Clusters appear in nursing homes. In a few weeks, no less than 78 people die. On February 21, the former mayor of Toulouse and former Minister of Health, Philippe Douste-Blazy, defends a “zero covid strategy” and indicates, without batting an eyelid: “To stimulate us to live again normally in June, and definitively, on condition to give us the means ”. We know the result …
At the end of February, the member for Tarn-et-Garonne, Sylvia Pinel, victim of a long Covid, testifies: “On a daily basis and for several months, it is very difficult to live”.
It is also the period when young patients begin to arrive in intensive care.
(© Archives / News Toulouse)
March: saliva tests and vaccinodrome
Saliva tests are coming to schools. On March 11, the Occitanie prefecture announced that it was welcoming 7 additional patients from Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA). This operation, which took place in 2020, is then a first in Occitania in 2021.
On the weekend of March 27 and 28, the vaccinodrome opens on Ramier Island. 4,250 people are vaccinated in two days.
March 30, 38-year-old woman dies of thrombosis following a first injection of AstraZeneca. The National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) confirms that there is a risk of thrombosis (in other words the formation of a blood clot) “very rare” associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
April: advanced school holidays
The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron announces a hybrid confinement which allows the population to get out as much air as they want between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. within a limit of 10 km around their home. Another big measure: throughout France, school holidays have also been brought forward from Monday April 12 to Sunday April 25.
Also in April, a new test for the detection of antibodies to Sars-CoV-2 (alias Covid-19), “reliable, inexpensive and requiring no specialized equipment”, was invented by an international scientific team, co-directed by Étienne Joly, Inserm researcher in Toulouse.
On April 7, the Toulouse vaccinodrome opens 7 days a week. On April 12, the Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, is traveling to the Pink City. But on his return to Paris, he was declared a contact case and isolated himself. The same day, the self-tests arrive at the pharmacy. On April 24, the 4,000 death mark was crossed in Occitania.
May: cinemas, restaurants and bars reopen
On Wednesday 19 May, the terraces of restaurants and bars, but also museums, major shopping centers and cinemas reopen. On May 31, the vaccination campaign opens to all adults. Ten large centers can accommodate the public.
June: the health pass and the Delta variant
As of June 9, organized gatherings of more than 1,000 people must set up a health pass control, which includes either proof of a negative RT-PCR or antigen test; the certificate of recovery from Covid-19 or the vaccination certificate.
The Indian variant, says Delta, is gradually entering Occitania. In June, we observe that Haute-Garonne is one of the departments with the lowest proportion of first-time vaccines in its population.
At the end of June, the first criticisms fell on the vaccinodrome: hired students denounced “chaotic management”.
July: reopening of nightclubs
On July 9, nightclubs in Toulouse and the rest of France open their doors after more than a year of sleep. Meanwhile, restaurateurs are raging against the sanitary pass. Hubert de Faletans, president of the restaurant branch of the UMIH 31, speaks squarely of “health apartheid”.
On July 17 and 18, the Toulouse vaccinodrome becomes one of the most important in Europe.
August: the characteristic White Plan
After Corsica and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, it is the turn of Occitania to trigger the white plan in the hospitals of its territory, Wednesday, August 4. That month, Occitanie was forced to evacuate patients to the north of the country. A first since the start of the pandemic.
On August 16, the health pass is compulsory in shopping centers.
On August 18, the Saint-Orens vaccination center was vandalized. 3,500 doses of vaccine were destroyed.
September: demonstration against the health pass
Pour the 8e consecutive weekend, thousands of demonstrators walk the boulevards of Toulouse, this Saturday, September 4, to affirm their opposition to the health pass. September 15 is the beginning of the vaccination obligation for caregivers.
October: closure of the vaccinodrome
At the forefront of the fight against Covid with 650,000 doses analyzed in seven months, the Ramier vaccinodrome, in Toulouse, closes its doors on October 23.
November: the epidemic is on the rise
The epidemic is picking up steam. This is the start of the 5e wave. On November 24, Mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc announced that he had contracted the virus, “probably at the congress of mayors of Paris”.
December: the Omicron threat
On December 8, the prefect of Haute-Garonne is assessed positively. On the 9th, the vaccinodrome reopens its doors.
On December 10, nightclubs close again for a month. On the 13th, the first case of the Omicron variant was detected in the department. On December 20, the vaccination for 5-11 year olds opens.
As of December 21, there were 966 people who had died of Covid-19 in hospitals in Haute-Garonne, since March 2020.
On December 30, the Haute-Garonne prefecture takes several measures on the occasion of the alarm clock on the 31st: wearing a mask compulsory in certain streets, closing of bars at 2 a.m.
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