Feature

The little-known body getting Monaco through the pandemic

Centre-suivi-covid-19
Gouvernement princier

If Monaco stayed open during the second coronavirus wave, it is also thanks to a body that is not often talked about: the Home Patient Follow-Up Centre.

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Every day at the Monaco Auditorium, doctors, nurses and Monaco red-cross volunteers run the Home Patient Follow-Up Centre. The body, which is meant to take the pressure off the Princess Grace Hospital, monitors all Covid-19 cases that do not require hospitalisation, as well as asymptomatic cases.

Since 23 March, 735 people have been taken in charge by the Home Patient Follow-Up Centre.

Ludmilla Raconnat le Goff

On call throughout the pandemic

“The centre was put on standby at the beginning of May, but then in September we strengthened the teams,” Ludmilla Raconnat le Goff, General Secretary of Monaco’s Department of Health and Social Affairs, told Monaco Info. Even during summer, the centre never stopped working: a doctor was permanently on call all summer long. Even if the centre’s workload has dropped in recent days – the centre is currently monitoring the health of 19 people, compared to 125 two weeks ago – an epidemiological unit is still operating. The unit liaises with other Monaco medical bodies and tracks any contact cases to ensure rapid screening.