Paris (AFP)

Marked by the first epidemic wave, "worn out" by the second, the caregivers of the intensive care unit at Tenon hospital, in Paris, are weary and worried when it comes to facing the dreaded English variant of Covid-19.

A plastic tree still stands beside the medicine cabinet at the nursing station.

With its garland, balls and, at the top, a surgical mask.

Here more than elsewhere, the Covid is part of the decor.

Tuesday morning, the 20 beds are full and the virus arrogates half of it.

"Since November, we have never fallen below a quarter," said Prof. Muriel Faroukh, 53, head of a department who "learned to work with this level of additional pressure".

Nothing to do with "hell" in March, when 42 beds monopolized "the whole floor", with "all the intubated-ventilated patients on the stomach".

But she can see that "a real feeling of concern" is rising in her team, at the same time as the admissions of infected patients are increasing "extremely clearly".

Tenon is no exception: the Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) counted 219 “Covid patients” in intensive care on Tuesday, or 41 more in ten days.

The number of daily admissions increased from 15 to 25 in three weeks.

Some are found under sedation, respiratory tube in the mouth, food probe in the nose and compresses on the eyes, instead of the eyelids released by the effect of curares.

Others remain conscious, like this obese and angry man who requires three orderlies for his toilet.

Including Julien, 30, who does not feel "yet overwhelmed as we may have been" at the beginning, but begins to find the time long.

"We are worn out", he said, "we live this stress every day in the service, when we come home we have nothing to decompress because everything is closed. Mentally it starts to be really trying."

- "A form of routine" -

"We are fed up," confirms his colleague Édouard.

This 34-year-old nurse has however seen others, in six years of "shifts".

Fortunately, "the team is quite close-knit, that's what keeps us going", so if the epidemic starts again "we will manage it as we have already done".

It has practically become "a form of routine", observes Marie, 32, for whom "a Covid patient is almost easy, we know how it's going to happen, it's always the same thing".

Inertia does not only have virtues: "Since last year, there has been no opening of beds", regrets the nurse, who also hoped for more "trained, competent and permanent staff" , instead of reinforcements drawn from other services with each wave of Covid.

"They are doing what they can but we can see the difference".

While the doctors carry out their round of morning visits, followed by a dozen interns and externs, two radiographers take the chest images in another corridor, taking care to change devices between Covid patients and patients. other.

"The professionals who work here are very conscientious", which is "not obvious when you have a series of heavy days in care", observes health executive Esther Kénol, 35 years old.

Nevertheless, the heroes in white and blue coats are tired, and for good reason: "It's been almost a year that we pedal in this semolina together".

More than the English variant, an imminent threat but not yet concrete, "what worries us a lot is the accumulation of uncertainties" on a "succession of potential waves which are arriving".

It therefore leans for "firm and concrete decisions".

Like Professor Faroukh, who judges that "the indicators must make it very clear that a re-containment", if possible "very quickly".

Like the caregiver Julien, who believes that "the French must accept to make the effort, because we, in a hospital environment, we can't take it anymore".

© 2021 AFP