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Coronavirus pandemic
image copyrightEPA
The use of hospital beds by Covid-19 patients in the French city of Marseille is “close to saturation” amid a sharp increase in infections.
Surgeries are being curtailed to cope with an incidence rate that has risen to 312 per 100,000 since September.
New meeting limits are being introduced around Marseille and in the southwestern city of Bordeaux.
a country that on Saturday registered a large rebound in cases.
The 10,561 new infections over 24 hours represented the largest increase since large-scale testing began.
Figures for Sunday and Monday were lower, as is often the case in weekend reports, but the seven-day moving average, which smoothes out these irregularities, saw infections rise for the 28th day in a row.
France has recorded more than 425,000 infections and nearly 31,000 deaths in the coronavirus epidemic, research from Johns Hopkins University shows.
Why the new measures?
On Friday, Prime Minister Jean Castex warned of “worrying developments” in Marseille and its Bouches-du-Rhône department, and in Bordeaux. He called for new measures to be established for Monday.
In a briefing on Monday, Philippe de Mester, director general of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur health agency, said that the positive test rate had reached 10.6% in Marseille and 8.5% in the Bouches du Rhône in general.
Intensive care capacity was close to overload. Marseille Hospital Director Jean-Olivier Arnaud said that 31 of 35 resuscitation beds and 129 of 155 dedicated Covid patient beds were in use, adding: “We are not far from saturation.”
“We are at the top of the national ranking of departments whose situation is developing more unfavorably,” said de Mester.
image copyrightEPAYann Bubien, director of the Bordeaux hospital and a member of the government’s Covid scientific advisory council, said there had been “a very rapid increase in the last 10 days” in the city.
“All the warning signs are flashing red,” he said.
What are the measures?
In Marseille and Bouches-du-Rhône until October 1:
- Large-scale gatherings for the public limited to 1,000 people seated, with a minimum distance of one meter (3 feet)
- Student parties are prohibited and field trips are suspended
- Private gatherings of more than 10 people are not allowed, even on beaches and parks, in high-risk areas
- Mandatory masks in 27 high-risk areas of the department from 06:00 (04:00 GMT) to 02:00 (00:00 GMT), except in large outdoor areas
Very similar measures were introduced for Bordeaux, including the 1,000 limit for large-scale gatherings and the 10-person limit for private gatherings.
Additional police will be deployed to enforce the measures in Bordeaux, and the situation will be reviewed in “two to three weeks”.
In addition, the Monte Carlo International Festival, the world’s largest circus event, scheduled for January, was canceled.
