The incidence rate in the general population now exceeds 250 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in Toulouse and Montpellier, which will switch Tuesday to the maximum alert zone, the last level before the state of health emergency.
Toulouse and Montpellier will spend Tuesday in the maximum alert zone due to the deterioration of indicators linked to the Covid-19 epidemic, reaching most of the major French cities, the prefectures concerned announced on Sunday.
Lyon, Grenoble, Saint-Etienne and Lille passed Saturday in "maximum alert zone", as was already the case in Paris and Aix-Marseille, as well as in Guadeloupe.
New contaminations (more than 16,000 in the last 24 hours, nearly 27,000 the day before) continue to increase, as do admissions in intensive care (1,483 patients in total on Sunday, a record since May).
The Minister of Health Olivier Véran had warned Thursday that Toulouse, 4th largest city in France, and Montpellier, "which have worrying epidemic characteristics", could follow the same path quickly.
The prefect of Occitanie and Haute-Garonne Etienne Guyot had gathered in the afternoon by audio conference several mayors of the metropolis of Toulouse to inform them of this new stage of alert, synonymous with new restrictions.
"Seventeen municipalities in the Toulouse metropolitan area are going from the enhanced alert level to the maximum alert level. In addition, a certain number of municipalities [...] which belong to the Toulouse living area will move up to the level of enhanced alert, "said the prefect in a statement.
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In Hérault, the 31 municipalities of the Montpellier metropolis are also on maximum alert as well as seven adjoining municipalities, announced the prefecture.
On Friday, the Montpellier University Hospital, which has activated level 1 of its white plan since mid-September, announced the deprogramming of part of its operating activities "to cope with the influx of patients with Covid-19".
Before the weekend, 68 patients with Covid were hospitalized at the CHU, including 24 "in critical care services".
The hospital center has a total of 76 beds dedicated to Covid patients, he further specified.
The maximum alert zone is reached when the incidence rate in the general population exceeds 250 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the last seven days, when it exceeds 100 in those over 65, and if the occupancy rate of beds in intensive care units by Covid-19 patients reached 30% in the region.
It involves in particular the closure of bars and sports halls, a reinforced protocol in restaurants or even reduced gauges in university amphitheatres and shopping centers.
In its latest bulletin published on Friday, ARS Occitanie reports 157 hospitalizations (including 47 in intensive care) in Hérault, and 145 (including 40 in intensive care) in Haute-Garonne.
Since the start of the epidemic, at least 32,684 deaths have been recorded in France.