The French government has vowed to do everything possible to avoid a third national lockdown, but with cases rising sharply almost everywhere and hospitals in Paris overflowing, another crippling shutdown looks likely.
This week will be decisive for the strategy overseen by French President Emmanuel Macron and his government, who argue that every day without a lockdown is a bonus for France, which they see as exhausted after a year of restrictions.
New tougher measures were introduced on March 20 covering around one-third of the population, including the Paris region, but the French government stopped short of full stay-at-home orders, with many shops still open and people allowed to meet outside in small groups.
Pressure is now rising to close schools and go further, with many medics and epidemiologists warning that COVID-19 is out of control.
“If we arrive at a point where the risk is too great, we’ve always said a lockdown is the ultimate decision, the final resort,” French lawmaker Aurore Berge told the Public Senat TV channel on Monday.
France’s vaccine rollout has also been hit by a chronic shortage of doses, while the daily figures for new infections and hospitalizations make for grim reading.
Over the past seven days, an average of about 37,000 new cases have been reported daily, up one-quarter on the previous seven-day period, while bed shortages in hospitals in the most affected areas are becoming acute.
More than 40 doctors and emergency care directors from the Paris region on Sunday put their names to an open letter warning that hospitals would soon have to start rationing access to intensive care beds and select patients judged to have the best chance of survival.
“We cannot remain silent without betraying the Hippocratic oath we once made,” they wrote.
Macron has always made this a red line, saying that he would never force medical staff to make such life-or-death choices.
“In 10 days, 15 days or three weeks, we might be overwhelmed,” Remi Salomon, an official at AP-HP public hospitals in Paris, told the BFMTV news channel, pleading for a new lockdown.
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