Covid-19: France wants to keep pace with vaccination, Paris region worried - France 24

Paris (AFP)

After an all-out vaccination weekend, the Covid-19 epidemic remains under close surveillance in France and the situation is once again critical in the Paris region, where hospitals and clinics have been ordered to deprogram activities to deal with the influx of patients.

With 973 Covid-19 patients treated in one of the resuscitation services in the Ile-de-France region, for "less than 1,050 beds" available, "we are in a situation of very strong tension", 'AFP the director general of the Regional Health Agency (ARS), Aurélien Rousseau.

As a result, the Ile-de-France ARS gave "the firm order" to hospitals and clinics to deprogram 40% of their least urgent medical and surgical activities to increase capacity, with a target now set at 1,577 beds of sheave.

"The situation is very worrying with an English variant" of the coronavirus, more contagious, "which has gained the upper hand and is spreading much more quickly", warned on France Inter the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who was said to be unfavorable to the last week, like the president of the Ile-de-France region Valérie Pécresse, to weekend confinement on her territory.

In the end, the executive limited this measure to Pas-de-Calais, after the coast of the Alpes-Maritimes and the agglomeration of Dunkirk.

"The hospital health burden is not the same in the Hauts-de-France region and in Ile-de-France", justified Friday the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, also highlighting the need to take measures across the Paris region and not just for a few departments.

- "No half measures" -

"The curfew at 6 p.m., the closure of certain places, it is very restrictive ... People do not experience it as half measures", also insists the spokesman of the government, Gabriel Attal, in a interview with the Parisian.

The incidence rate dropped back below 400 new cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants over seven days in Pas-de-Calais, even before its first confined weekend.

It now climbs to 425 in Seine-Saint-Denis, 400 in Val-de-Marne and exceeds 300 in Val-d'Oise, Seine-et-Marne, Paris and Essonne, above the threshold maximum alert set at 250 by the government.

If several regions do not reach hospital saturation, the number of patients treated in intensive care units continues to increase, to 3,743 throughout France, against 4,900 at the peaks of the second wave and 7,000 during the first.

In this context, the health authorities are called upon to maintain the pace of the vaccination campaign.

For four consecutive days, from Wednesday to Saturday, the number of daily bites exceeded 100,000 in the country, including more than 180,000 Friday and Saturday in dedicated centers, a record rate.

In total, 3.7 million French people received at least one dose of the vaccine (or about 5.6% of the population), of which 1.9 million were vaccinated with two doses.

- Yes to Sephora, no to the museum -

The "destocking of doses" (12,000 in Paris this weekend), "it is very good, but it cannot be simply for a weekend", warned Anne Hidalgo, deploring "announcements (.. .) this week in Paris (which) are going back very, very far ", with" 10,000 doses for the week, it is very, very insufficient ".

From Monday, pharmacists will be able to order to vaccinate in turn.

But not general practitioners, "given the number of doses delivered by AstraZeneca," said a note from the Directorate General of Health published on Sunday.

What to infuriate the union of liberal doctors (SML): "to give in to the whim of pharmacists, the general direction of health decides that the doctors will not be able to vaccinate next week while all the appointments are already taken", deplores the union.

A message "unacceptable", also rebelled, on Twitter, the Order of Physicians.

For his part, Gabriel Attal warned health professionals, whose reluctance of some to be vaccinated is controversial.

"Our caregivers were heroic", but "it would be irresponsible to refuse to be vaccinated when you are a caregiver," he says, not excluding making the injections compulsory, even if "we do 'first the choice of trust ".

He also remained evasive on the dates of reopening of restaurants or museums, closed for more than four months.

"I admit having trouble explaining that we can go to a Sephora but not to a museum", he concedes, while adding that "there is necessarily, in the management of such an epidemic, a part of inconsistency when it is necessary to limit interactions and the flow of people ".

© 2021 AFP