The Baden-Württemberg authorities transferred the first patients from Alsace (Mulhouse, Colmar, Strasbourg) to hospitals in Freiburg and Karlsruhe on Saturday 21 March and Sunday 22 March.
Jean Rottner, President of the Greater East Region, has since the beginning of the Covid-19 Coronavirus epidemic, held talks with his German counterparts, Winfried Kretschmann, Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg, Malu Dreyer, Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate, and Tobias Hans, Minister-President of Saarland, in order to exchange views on the difficult situation of cross-border commuters as well as on medical needs.
A contact unit has been set up since 12 March at the initiative of the Region, between the Prefecture of the Greater East Region, the Regional Health Agency (ARS) and the authorities of the three German Länder responsible for coordinating cross-border cooperation.
Amélie de Montchalin, Secretary of State for European Affairs and Secretary General for Franco-German Relations, gave her full support to coordinated crisis management between France and Germany, both between Paris and Berlin and through the local border dialogue.
On Saturday 21 March and Sunday 22 March, the Baden-Württemberg authorities transferred the first patients from Alsace (Mulhouse, Colmar, Strasbourg) to hospitals in Freiburg and Karlsruhe. Exchanges are in progress with a view to organising the transfer of patients to hospitals in Rhineland-Palatinate.
Relieving hospital congestion
On Sunday, 22 March, Tobias Hans proposed, among other things, that patients in intensive care (from their 7th day of hospitalisation) should be cared for in Saarland hospitals for as long as medical capacities permit.
These commitments by the partner Länder of the Greater East Region, coordinated with the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Prefecture and the LRA, will relieve congestion in the hospitals of the Greater East Region to the benefit of contaminated patients. In particular, they demonstrate that Franco-German solidarity at the local level, despite the severe restrictions on border crossings decided on in recent days, continues to be embodied in concrete actions.
Jean Rottner also thanks the Regional Health Agency for the work undertaken to speed up the regulation of hospitalisation requests from patients treated in the Great East of Germany, and their treatment by the authorities of the three border Länder.