France began, Saturday April 10, two weeks of confined school holidays, without travel between regions but with a curfew at 7 p.m. for everyone, in the hope of curbing the Covid-19 epidemic while the vaccination , always chaotic, accelerates.
No departures to the sea or to the countryside, or only on the pretext of dropping off a child with relatives: for the second year in a row, the spring holidays have a taste of confinement, even if the new measures make it possible to ventilate more than an hour and leave the parks, gardens and beaches open.
At the Virsac tollgate, the gateway to Bordeaux and the Gironde coast, the gendarmes stepped up the checks on Friday evening, but "globally the people who are outside have valid reasons", noted Captain Lionel Billette, second in command of the The Gironde road safety squadron, on the eve of a weekend classified as green by Bison Futé.
# COVID19 |
The braking measures apply to the entire territory.
The travel certificate is available in #TousAntiCovid: it is always the easiest and safest way to travel.
📲Download the app: https://t.co/mby1W4H0Sb pic.twitter.com/BuCMKepQyz
- Ministry of Solidarity and Health (@Sante_Gouv) April 10, 2021
"The day before yesterday, we were at saturation"
On April 10, 2020, after more than three weeks of strict confinement, France had just emerged from the peak of 7,000 patients received in intensive care.
A year later, many sectors (catering, cultivation) have been closed for five months and the situation has become very tense again in the hospital, the consequence of an epidemic out of control in March, pushed by the English variant, which is more contagious.
Friday evening, the Ministry of Health beat the recall of the troops, calling in a statement "all health professionals", students, health reserve, retirees, liberal doctors, to strengthen hospitals, by registering first on a ministry platform, Renfort RH Crise.
"The day before yesterday, we were at saturation, all the beds were occupied and we had to carry out medical evacuations", testified Friday to AFP Professor Jean-Damien Ricard, of the intensive medicine and intensive care unit of Louis-Mourier hospital in Colombes, near Paris.
"We really thank the families who accepted (...) It was the only way to be able to cope with the influx of patients."
For several weeks, to increase reception capacities, the sheaves have been nibbling away at the spaces of other services and hospitals have been forced to deprogram less urgent activities to welcome Covid-19 patients.
France nears 100,000 dead
Friday, more than 5,750 patients affected by the virus were treated in these critical care services, on a current capacity increased to 8,000 beds of sheaves all pathologies combined.
The death toll also continues to grow, with 301 deaths recorded in hospitals on Friday, and a total (98,395) which brings France closer to the 100,000 dead mark, already exceeded in Italy or the United Kingdom.
In 2021, around 340 Covid-19 patients died on average every day.
Rare encouraging sign, even before the closure of schools, the circulation of the virus continued to progress last week, but in a less rapid way than the preceding ones, "which can testify to a slowdown", noted Public Health France.
The health agency also underlined a "viral circulation of less intensity" in Ile-de-France and in Hauts-de-France, two regions among the most affected by the third epidemic wave, where reduced confinements had entered into force from March 20.
But if it were to be confirmed, the braking of the epidemic will have effects in the hospital only after a shift, one to two weeks later.
Chaotic vaccination campaign
The only way out is therefore vaccination.
The pace is accelerating, with more than 500,000 injections in Friday alone, after more than 400,000 Thursday.
But even at this rate, total protection of the adult population is still a long way off: if the vaccination coverage rate with two doses approaches 75% among nursing home residents, it only reaches 35% among 75-79 year-olds in the city, 9% among 70-74 year olds and 4% among 65-69 year olds.
Records are made to be broken!
After 437,000 yesterday, 510,000 vaccinations were carried out today throughout the 🇫🇷.
Like here in Grenoble, where I was inaugurating a vaccinodrome.
Thank you all for this mobilization!
pic.twitter.com/PdwuUG1PGd
- Olivier Véran (@olivierveran) April 9, 2021
Saturday morning, Prime Minister Jean Castex was to go to a vaccination center in Lyon, after a visit to the Edouard Herriot hospital.
Like other European countries, the vaccination campaign remains chaotic in France, subject in particular to the chain disappointments of the AstraZeneca product, between drop in deliveries and fears about side effects, even if they remain extremely rare.
With AFP
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