The coronavirus epidemic continues to progress in France, where 33,000 cases have been diagnosed. In the main foci of contamination, Grand Est and Île-de-France, hospitals are overwhelmed. To relieve them, several patient transfers are planned in the coming days to slightly less saturated CHUs.

The transfer of patients with coronavirus is accelerating across France. By road, by train or by plane, the health authorities organize the resuscitation of patients from hospitals in the most affected regions to slightly less submerged teaching hospitals. After a first medical convoy which left Strasbourg in the direction of Nantes on Thursday, other transfers are planned for the weekend and the beginning of next week.

>> LIVE - Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation

With the Great East, the Île-de-France region is to this day the main focus of the Hexagon epidemic. Some of its hospitals, on the verge of saturation, will also be relieved in the coming days by the transfer of fifteen patients from the intensive care units.

>> Watch Bernard Poirette's morning show in replay and podcast here

"In Île-de-France, hundreds of beds have been cleared, there are still a few available this weekend. But to relieve the hospitals in the outer suburbs, which are particularly busy, around fifteen resuscitation patients will be evacuated by road to the Center-Val-de-Loire region ", explains Professor Rémi Salomon, Director General of Health. This transfer must take place over the weekend.

>> PODCAST - Coronavirus: find all the answers to your questions here

Several dozen patients are also preparing to leave hospitals in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, also submerged. "The first evacuation of 40 resuscitation patients will be by road and air to the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in the coming days. A second convoy will be chartered to the PACA region over the weekend," specifies Rémi Salomon.

CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS

> Paid leave, RTT, sick leave: what changes the state of health emergency

> What do we know about chloroquine, the treatment that is debating?

> What to do if you are sick, but not coronavirus?

> Why you will have to be patient to be reimbursed for a canceled trip

> Homemade bread, short circuits ... Our solutions to continue to eat well during confinement

> Sex: how to manage abstinence during confinement?

According to the latest official report published on Friday, nearly 33,000 cases have been confirmed since the start of the epidemic in France, and 1,995 deaths have been counted in hospitals alone.