The regional health agency asked the prefect to maintain border controls until October 1. Aware of the constraints that this generates, she asks Saint-Martin residents for another "two weeks" of patience.
"These two weeks are essential," insisted the deputy director of the ARS during a press conference late Monday afternoon. The health authorities believe that the territory is on a plateau and that two weeks would make it possible to curb the trend and a return to the decline in the number of cases in the French part.
In addition, during this period new - faster - tests should be put into service in Saint-Martin.
These are the antigenic tests which are being tested in Paris. "The director of the ARS asked that we be able to benefit from it in priority", indicated the prefect Sylvie Feucher. They are faster than PCR tests and less technically restrictive to manage, the results can be delivered in 30 minutes.
In addition, the representatives of the ARS are scheduled to meet tomorrow with their counterparts from Sint Maarten to see under what conditions a common screening platform could be set up on the island. A measure which, if accepted on both sides, could promote the rapid lifting of border controls.
"Obviously we will have to find a solution," assures the prefect, especially thinking of the tourist season. She would like a system similar to the one that the COM of Saint-Barth has set up, also in Saint-Martin / St Maarten: it consists for the authorities to register the place of accommodation of people arriving on the island and impose a test seven days after their arrival. And if they don't show up, they will be checked. This means allows to limit the importation of the virus on the island.
In the meantime, "there is no good solution, all have a drawback," agrees the prefect who, on the other hand, does not take other measures such as wearing a mask in the streets or closing the shops earlier. bars and restaurants. As a reminder, Prime Minister Castex asked three prefects last Friday, including that of Guadeloupe, to toughen measures to combat the spread of the virus.
(soualigapost.com)
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