More than half of Paris’ poorest residents have Covid, new survey finds

Some 90 per cent of those tested by MSF are migrants

More than half of the Paris region’s poorest residents, notably migrants, have been infected with the coronavirus, according to French aid group Doctors Without Borders, or MSF.

The alarming figures were released on the day the French capital closed down bars for two weeks and imposed tighter restrictions on restaurants in a bid to stem rising infection and intensive care occupancy rates.

After conducting tests in emergency shelters and food distribution centres in late June and early July, MSF concluded that the positivity rate was 55 per cent compared with just 12 per cent currently for the general population in Paris.

Migrants accounted for 90 per cent of the more 800 people tested, said MSF, adding that this was the first study in Europe of its kind.

"The results show an extremely high prevalence. The main reason is the conditions at shelters and being packed together, which leads to clusters" of infection, Corinne Torre of MSF told AFP.

Coronavirus France Spotlight Chart — Cases default

During France’s three-month lockdown between mid-March to mid-May, hundreds of migrants were evacuated from makeshift camps in the streets and housed in crowded  gymnasiums and other temporary dwellings.

The rate in 10 shelters was 50.5 per cent with almost 28 per cent of those tested in food distribution centres positive.  But the highest rate by far was recorded in two centres housing migrant workers, where positivity in tests reached 89 per cent, noted MSF.

"In Europe and France no other study shows this level of prevalence," said Thomas Roederer, epidemiologist at Epicentre, the epidemiological centre housed by MSF.

"These types of figures on this scale can only be found in India or in the slums of Brazil — and even there, it’s more like 40-50 per cent."

He said many of these migrant workers were delivery drivers or Uber drivers. 

According to the Sante Publique France health agency, the overall positivity rate for France has now reached 8.6 per cent nationwide and 13.4 per cent in the Paris area, with the percentage of intensive care beds taken up by Covid patients now on 13.4 per cent.

Paradoxically, the drive to shelter the extreme poor and homeless in emergency shelters during national confinement could well have compounded the high infection rates, said the study. In migrant worker shelters, a third of people shared their rooms with between two to five people and a further 21 per cent with more than five people.

"It’s what we’ve been saying from the beginning; we knew the conditions to welcome these people couldn’t work and that it was impossible to respect social distancing," said Ms Torre.

"We need to change housing strategy."

MSF said it feared that any attempt by the city to relocate in cramped emergency shelters some 1,400 migrants currently sleeping in a makeshift camp in one Paris suburb would "lead to the same pattern" of infections.