[ad_1]
On Thursday night, the French government announced that 16,096 new coronavirus infections had been recorded in the previous 24 hours, the highest number of cases ever detected in the country since the start of the epidemic. Although it should be noted that these data are not comparable to those reported in March and April, when swabs were performed almost exclusively on hospitalized people, the situation in France remains worrying.
The number of new cases per day has increased since July, and the number of COVID-19 patients admitted to Paris hospitals has more than doubled in the past three weeks. There was also an increase in hospitalizations in the capital area in intensive care units, where three weeks ago there were 50 patients with COVID-19, while on Wednesday the figure had risen to 132: according to some estimates, they could exceed 200 . during the next week. The public consortium that brings together hospitals in the Paris area said that the arrival of new patients forced hospitals to cancel some non-urgent surgeries starting this weekend.
The situation in France is not as serious as at the peak of the epidemic: in April the peak of new infections registered in the space of 24 hours was 5,497, therefore much less than the more than 16 thousand of Thursday, but the deaths were several hundred each day. , whereas now there are a few dozen. Even the pressure in the country’s hospitals, although increasing, is not comparable to that observed in the most critical months.
– Read also: How will you do this time at RSA?
On Wednesday, Olivier Veran, the French health minister, announced new restrictions, calling the epidemiological situation in the country “drastically deteriorating.” The government had divided France into zones, highlighted with different shades of red according to the more or less restrictive measures introduced. The “alert” areas are those in which the incidence rate of coronavirus infections reaches up to 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants; the “intense alert” is for areas with a rate higher than 150 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and moderate pressure on hospitals; with more than 250 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, and with intensive care units more than 30 percent occupied by patients with COVID-19, we speak of “maximum alert”; the most serious situation is that identified in the “state of emergency”, which, however, has not yet affected any area of France.
[#COVID19] To take the appropriate measures, we rely on three key indicators to classify the departments and territories in this phase of the epidemic ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/XLxRJEchcW
– Ministry of Solidarity and Health (@MinSoliSante) September 23, 2020
However, the measures announced by the government this Wednesday did not attract some local administrations, including that of Marseille, a city in the south of the country, one of the most affected by the so-called “second wave” of coronavirus.
For Marseille, as well as nearby Aix-en-Provence and the island of Guadeloupe, in the Antilles, the government had announced the closure of all bars, restaurants and sports facilities starting this weekend. Michèle Rubirola, mayor of Marseille, harshly attacked the government of Emmanuel Macron, accusing him of having adopted restrictive measures without consulting him: “The health situation [della città] does not justify this ad. I cannot accept that the people of Marseille become victims of political decisions that nobody understands “, Rubirola tweeted. Several restaurant and bar owners in Marseille have said they will protest the introduction of the new measures and it is feared that many companies will not respect the restrictions. Meanwhile, the local administration has asked to postpone the closure of bars and restaurants for ten days.
Marseille, which had detected lower coronavirus numbers last spring than other areas in France, had started to experience a significant increase in infections in August, during the summer holidays, when the city had been a tourist destination for many French people. Initially, the infections were concentrated mainly among the youngest, but then progressively spread among the older population of the city. Now the situation has become worrisome, especially with the increase in COVID-19 patients in the city’s hospitals.
Protests similar to those of Rubirola came from Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, a city for which the government has decided to close all the premises as of 10 p.m. (similar measures have been announced for Lyon, Grenoble, Bordeaux, Nice, Lille, Toulouse, Saint-Etienne, Rennes, Rouen and Montpellier). Hidalgo also said that she had not been consulted and called the new measures “very restrictive.”
French Prime Minister Jean Castex responded to criticism from the mayors of Marseille and Paris, and to threats from the owners of the premises not to respect the new rules, calling for “responsibility”: “What I don’t want is to go back to March” , Castex said, when one of the toughest closures in all of Europe was imposed in France.
[ad_2]
