Paris (AFP)
France, which has passed the milestone of 3,500 coronavirus deaths, continues on Wednesday to evacuate patients to relieve the most saturated regions with, for the first time since Ile-de-France, two medical TGVs which will reach Brittany .
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and Minister of Health Olivier Véran will be heard Wednesday at the National Assembly by the fact-finding mission, to talk about "the impact, management and consequences" of the epidemic.
This mission, created last week, aims to monitor weekly the measures taken by the government.
Three months to the day after the first alert by the World Health Organization on unexplained lung diseases in China, France recorded Tuesday a new record increase in the number of coronavirus deaths: 499 in 24 hours, one death every three minutes.
According to the latest report from the authorities, the epidemic killed 3,523 people. The number of intensive care patients more than doubled in one week and reached 5,565 on Tuesday evening (+458).
The death toll in France now exceeds the official toll in China (3,305). But many experts, based in particular on the high number of funeral urns that families have started to recover in China, consider the official Chinese number to be largely underestimated.
"This situation is completely unprecedented in the history of French medicine", underlined the general director of Health Jérôme Salomon during his daily press briefing.
- Surge in Île-de-France -
A third of the deaths recorded in hospitals were in Ile-de-France, where the epidemic is sweeping after hitting the east of the country.
To alleviate the services already under pressure, while the peak is not yet there, 36 patients from hospitals in the Paris region will be transferred Wednesday on board two medical TGVs from Paris to Brittany, according to the authorities.
The transfer by TGV remains "complicated", recalled Professor Salomon: the patients are "monitored throughout the journey by a full resuscitation team. It is a very cumbersome and completely reliable process".
Since the first operation of this type on March 18, "288 heavy patients have been transferred to less stressed regions and this number is expected to increase in the days and weeks to come," said Professor Salomon.
The East of France is not finished either with the saturation of its capacities: Tuesday evening, 21 transfers were underway from the Grand Est to Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland, according to the Director General of Health .
The director of the ARS du Grand Est said he was confident, believing that the region should experience a decrease in hospitalizations linked to Covid-19 during the second half of April.
In the Paris region, doctors and medical students are training at high speed in nursing to strengthen the hospitals of the AP-HP. But to act, these caregivers will need protection and appropriate equipment.
Criticized for the lack of protections facing the country, President Emmanuel Macron announced that France was going to move up a gear in the production of masks and respirators.
At the end of his visit to one of the four French mask factories on Tuesday near Angers (Maine-et-Loire), the Head of State promised four billion euros to finance orders "in drugs, respirators and masks ":" the priority today is to produce more in France and in Europe ", he insisted.
- Orly closes its doors -
To meet needs, France has ordered a billion masks and is organizing an "airlift" with China. After a first delivery on Monday, a second shipment of 12 million masks is expected on Wednesday.
In addition, a consortium of manufacturers has been created with the aim of manufacturing 10,000 respirators by mid-May.
Consequences of the epidemic: while the schools are at a standstill, "between 5 and 8% of the pupils" have been "lost" by their teachers who cannot reach them to ensure the desired "educational continuity", according to the education Minister.
Orly Airport, attended by 32 million passengers in 2019, closed its doors on Tuesday evening for an indefinite period, due to a lack of flights and passengers, now only welcoming state flights, medical flights and emergency diversions.
As for TGVs, greatly reduced due to confinement, their traffic reached "a floor" with only 42 TGVs per day against 700 usually, according to SNCF.
In order to avoid saturation in the face of mortality due to the coronavirus and to assist funeral directors, exemptions from funeral law have been taken by the government. In particular, they allow families who so wish to postpone the funeral of the deceased for up to six months.
Among the victims of the coronavirus, Pape Diouf, the former emblematic president of Olympique de Marseille, died in Dakar Tuesday, aged 68, before he could be repatriated to France.
© 2020 AFP