MELUN, France (Reuters) – France does not plan to block the Paris region, although the number of people with COVID-19 in intensive care has been at its peak since November, public health director Jerome Salomon said on Tuesday.
Medical officials in the Paris region, which accounts for about a sixth of France’s population, ordered hospitals on Monday to cancel 40% of their regular activities to make room for critical patients at COVID-19.
But Salomon told RTL radio: “A blockade in the greater Paris region is not on the agenda.”
“The blockade is a measure of last resort that would be submitted to the government and the president if we had the impression that the hospital system would not succeed,” he said.
The number of people treated in intensive care units for COVID-19 in France reached a maximum of 14-1 / 2 weeks on Monday at 3,849. The number was almost 1,000 for the Paris region.
At the Melun Hospital Center, about 50 km (31 miles) southeast of Paris, the team said it was in full swing trying to monitor all COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit.
“With intensive care beds, in our region and in some other regions, we are starting to get close to maximum capacity,” said Dr. Moncef Monchi, head of the intensive care unit.
In one of the hospital’s intensive care bays on Monday, Dr. Esther Mbakallu was intubating a patient under sedation – inserting a breathing tube that will pump extra oxygen into her airways. She said that his condition worsened, so he needed mechanical help to breathe.
“He was scared,” she said of the patient before being sedated for insertion of the tube. “There are rumors that intubated patients die, so he had that apprehension. I reassured him. “
Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten in Paris and Antony Paone in Melun, France; Edition by Timothy Heritage