PARIS (Reuters) – The coronavirus situation is getting worse in the Greater Paris region, where hospitals are under great pressure, Martin Hirsch, director general of the AP-HP hospital organization in Paris, said on Wednesday.
Hirsch told RTL radio that there were two options for containing the disease – a local weekend blockade, already in place in other parts of the country, or a broader blockade in the region.
“The virus is not under control. There are as many patients in intensive care units today as there were at the peak of the second wave, ”he said.
Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Tuesday that it was time for further restrictions on coronavirus in the Paris metropolitan area.
Hirsch said that almost 1,100 people were in intensive treatment with COVID-19 in the region, and that number could reach 1,700 by the end of the month if the current trend continues.
In normal times, the Paris metropolitan area has a capacity for intensive care beds of about 1,000, said Hirsch.
In France as a whole, there were 4,239 patients in intensive care with COVID-19 on Tuesday, almost a maximum of four months.
Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Andrew Heavens