Paris (AFP)

After a first weekend "confined to the open air" for part of France, and a controversial carnival in Marseille, the pressure continues to increase on the intensive care units and doctors have little illusion on a decline in the Covid-19 epidemic in the short term.

As a general rule, it is only after two weeks that new health measures can reduce the number of patients infected with the coronavirus entering the hospital.

But some doctors even doubt that the new and complex panoply of restrictions implemented this weekend for around 21 million inhabitants in sixteen departments in the Paris region, in the Hauts-de-France, in Normandy and in the Alpes-Maritimes. , change something.

"The fact that people are outside does not worry me (...), the problem is that the points on which we should have braked are not there", explained, on LCI, the epidemiologist and chief from the parasitology department at the Parisian hospital of Pitié-Salpêtrière, Renaud Piarroux, citing in particular "everything that is related to work".

"We must not dream, we are not going to have a rapid drop in the epidemic and allow us to breathe quickly," he added.

- 29,000 cases per day -

"The last measures will not be effective. They are only recommendations (teleworking, barrier gestures, isolation ...) and above all, the situation is out of control and the vaccination is too slow", warned for his part, on Twitter, Gilbert Deray, doctor specializing in nephrology at the "Pitié".

With another 30,581 new cases of Covid-19 recorded on Sunday by Public Health France, the average for the past week is more than 29,000 cases per day, against 23,900 the previous week.

On Sunday, more than 4,400 patients with the virus were treated in intensive care units, a figure that continues to increase and is approaching the peak of the second wave of autumn (4,900), but Ile-de-France, Hauts-de-France and the Provence Alpes-Côte d'Azur region are already saturated.

In the Paris region, this peak of the second wave had already been reached last Monday, with 1,152 patients.

Seven days later, the figure rose again, with 1,295 sick.

"Rea Covid: full, Non-Covid sheave: full, Covid intermediate unit: full, Covid sheave beds available in 93 (Seine-Saint-Denis): 0", testified on Twitter, Stéphane Gaudry, professor of intensive medicine and resuscitation at the Avicenne hospital (Bobigny).

Faced with criticism of health measures that would be insufficient, the government and the majority show the concern to preserve the mental health of the population, a theme on the agenda of a meeting in Matignon, more than two months after the entry into force of the curfew at 6 p.m. (now at 7 p.m.) and soon five months after the closure of bars, restaurants, cultural venues and universities, where students have only been able to return in small amounts.

- "Not at home" -

"The choice that has been made is to allow people to live as normally as possible while asking them to make additional efforts while the vaccination campaign is accelerating", defended for his part on Radio J the deputy Laurent Saint- Martin, head of the LREM list in the regional elections in Ile-de-France, recalling the new slogan: "we do not invite home".

"The whole thing is to be outside but not clumped together", also summarized, on BFM-TV, the head of the geriatrics pole of the University Hospital of Nice and member of the scientific council, Olivier Guérin, the day after the unauthorized carnival in Marseille , which brought together around 6,500 people, mostly young and without masks.

A rally "totally unacceptable", thundered Monday morning the spokeswoman for the Ministry of the Interior, who reported nine arrests and several "dozen verbalizations".

If vaccination is the only way out of the health crisis, it is not in the short term.

"By May or June, we expect a 50% reduction in hospitalizations compared to a situation without a vaccine. But everything depends on the control of the epidemic: dividing by two is very good, but it will not get us not far if the curves fly away! ", another member of the scientific council, Arnaud Fontanet, who foresees a" real impact "in" summer "had explained on Sunday.

The campaign drastically reduced the deaths in nursing homes, but nearly 2,000 people infected with Covid-19 died last week, bringing the total in France to more than 92,000.

© 2021 AFP