Paris (AFP)

The coronavirus wave is "sweeping" over France, where after hospitals in the Grand-Est those of Ile-de-France are threatened with saturation by the epidemic which has already caused some 1,700 deaths, including a 16-year-old girl who became the youngest victim.

To relieve the healthcare system in the Grand Est, the main focus of the disease, a military plane carried out a new evacuation of six patients from Mulhouse to Bordeaux, the day after an unprecedented medical transfer by TGV of patients to the Center and the West of the country, less affected. A new train should evacuate other patients from Nancy by Monday at the latest.

"We are pushing the walls everywhere to welcome these patients in intensive care as much as possible, (but) we are not yet on the plateau of the curve of the epidemic, we will have to find solutions," warned Professor Bruno on Friday morning Riou, AP-HP crisis medical director (hospitals in the Paris region).

He hoped that similar evacuations be quickly envisaged from the capital region to others less affected in order to "find availability for the sick" to come, while the resuscitation services of Seine-Saint-Denis are already full.

But the "health situation will not improve quickly," warned Prime Minister Édouard Philippe after a crisis meeting of the government by videoconference. "The epidemic wave sweeping across France (...) is an extremely high wave and it subjects the entire healthcare system, the entire hospital system, to formidable tension".

"We will have to hold out," he said, while the executive should soon announce the extension of the general confinement of the population, initially decreed until Tuesday. The Covid-19 Scientific Council has already recommended a total of six weeks, until the end of April.

- Millions of checks -

The authorities intend to strictly enforce the restrictions and more than 225,000 reports have already been drawn up for breach of confinement for 3.7 million checks, according to the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner.

The Prime Minister also undertook to make Saturday, during a press conference with the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, a "transparent" point on the health situation, in particular the shortage of masks or the controversial question of tests, that France has not generalized, for lack of means more than by strategy according to many specialists.

Thursday evening, the last assessment amounted to 1,696 deaths of Covid-19 registered in the hospital since the beginning of the epidemic at the end of January, and 3.375 patients in intensive care (+548 in one day), on a total of 13.904 ( +2.365) patients hospitalized in France.

But these figures do not take into account the patients who died at home or in retirement homes. However, the situation is particularly cruel in these establishments, where the exact number of deaths is not known, but is at least in tens.

Unpublished in this latest report, the death of a teenager, Julie A., 16, died at the Necker hospital in Paris, youngest victim to date of the epidemic in France. "We will never have an answer, it's unbearable," his mother, Sabine, told AFP, telling about her ordeal. The tests, first negative then positive, because Julie had "just a cough", hospitalization and then that phone call in the middle of the night: "Come, quickly!"

For the Director General of Health, Professor Jérôme Salomon, this information is "important, since severe forms in young people are extremely rare". But Professor Riou explains that "even if the population of the youngest has an extremely low individual risk, with the fact that the affected population is increasing, of course there will be some very severely ill patients among the youngest".

- "Collapse" -

Confined to their homes for more than a week, the French are worried about the health and social consequences of the crisis. According to an Ifop poll carried out from March 21 to 23 and published Friday in Le Parisien, 87% are afraid "of seeing the French economy collapse", 81% "of losing loved ones", 62% of "losing (them- even) life ", 57% of" losing a significant part of (their) income "or 40% of" running out of food ".

On the economic side, President Emmanuel Macron brought together the social partners by audio conference, while the derogations from the labor law worry unions, which also denounce the lack of protection of employees in several sectors still active, notably distribution, after Covid-related deaths.

According to CGT boss Philippe Martinez, a "bill" is being prepared to encourage companies that have received state aid, spent in the hundreds of millions, not to pay dividends this year.

During the night, President Macron announced on Twitter after an interview with his American counterpart Donald Trump, a "new important initiative" with the United States and other countries in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. , without further details.

In the meantime, the Paris Stock Exchange fell again on Friday after three rebound sessions, while the United States, the world's leading economic power, now has more cases of coronavirus than China, the initial focus of the epidemic.

© 2020 AFP