Covid-19: hospitals in the Paris region facing "a situation of very high tension"

A patient with Covid-19 in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Saint-Denis near Paris, in November 2020. REUTERS - GONZALO FUENTES

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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.

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With 973 Covid-19 patients treated in one of the resuscitation services in the Île-de-France region, for “ 

less than 1,050 beds

 ” available, “ 

we are in a situation of very strong tension

”, declared to AFP the director general of the Regional Health Agency (ARS), Aurélien Rousseau.

As a result, the Île-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 sheave beds

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 had said he was unfavorable to the last week, like the president of the Île-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 Île-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.

The incidence rate fell 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. .

Keeping the pace of vaccinations

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.

(With AFP)

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