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Government spokesman Gabriel Attal has indicated that the highest alert level will be introduced on Thursday in new high expectations, allowing a nightly curfew elsewhere between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., after Paris and eight others. agglomerations. The restriction currently affects some 20 million French people, a third of the population.
Health Minister Olivier Véran told the economic daily Les Échos that the government is providing more than 2.4 billion euros in emergency aid to health institutions “so that they can begin the fight against the second wave.”
The head of the ministry explained that the additional support must be understood in addition to the addition of 10 billion euros planned for 2020. Of this amount, 4,000 new beds will be opened in hospitals, and from December the salary increases already announced will be covered, as well such as overtime payments increased by the epidemic.
“I am absolutely sure that the hospitals will be able to withstand the pressure. The dam is strong. But the wave cannot hit too hard, so we have declared a health emergency,” said the minister.
The first wave of the epidemic in the spring claimed nearly 30,000 lives in France, where the curve of the epidemic is moving upward.
The number of people in the intensive care unit has risen to more than 2,000 for the first time since Monday. That number is still below the peak of the first wave of the epidemic, when more than 7,000 were hooked up to a ventilator, but more than 150 critically ill patients have been admitted to the intensive care unit every day for the past week, 278 on Tuesday.
Currently, the hospital cares for 12,458 infected people, 2,177 of them in the intensive care unit. In the northern departments of the country, as well as in Lyon and Paris, more than half of the intensive beds are already infected with coronavirus.
A week ago, the government issued a decree restoring health for a month. The extension requires parliamentary authorization. According to a draft adopted Wednesday, the government wants to extend the emergency until February 16, 2021.
The health emergency was declared by parliament due to the coronavirus epidemic and was in effect between March 23 and July 10 during the first wave. The law empowers the government to impose curfew restrictions, as well as partial or total quarantine. The National Assembly will meet exceptionally on Saturdays and Sundays to discuss the bill, which will even have to be approved by the Senate later.
Cover image: Getty Images
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