France was on the verge of a new internment after Paris crossed the threshold for intensive care patients

As France joined the suspension of the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, mimicking several other European countries, the president Emmanuel Macron warned that “new decisions” should be taken in the coming days to stem the coronavirus epidemic while the hospital situation, especially in Ile-de-France, worries health professionals.

Is a new confinement planned? “We will have to take new decisions in the coming days, without a doubt,” declared the President of the Republic on his way to Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne), where he is holding a Franco-Spanish summit with his counterpart Pedro. Sánchez.

The French head of state also announced that he had asked the government to work quickly to give “visibility to our fellow citizens on the calendar”, adding that “the master of time is the virus”.

According to the Head of State, nearly a year after the establishment of the first confinement, many things have changed, such as the arrival of vaccines, which now requires to take into account, with each new health measure adopted, new and social factors.

Data showing a worse scenario than in the second wave

The Ile-de-France region exceeded the incidence rate of 400 cases per 100,000 inhabitants on Monday, a critical threshold set by Prime Minister Jean Castex during an interview this weekend.

According to data from Public Health France, the incidence rate is exactly 404 this Monday, against 391 the day before, an increase of 14%.

On Sunday, the Prime Minister mentioned this limit to explain the difference in restrictions between Île-de-France, Paris, and other regions such as Nord-Pas-de-Calais or the Alpes-Maritimes.

“We started confinement at the weekend in these departments, when the incidence rate was 400 per 100,000 inhabitants. Is always below“In Île-de-France, Jean Castex had specified, and as long as this figure is not reached,” we cannot take the same measures “.

Meanwhile, on Monday 4,219 people were being treated in intensive care beds for covid 19 in France, adding 401 new admissions in 24 hours.

The number of patients hospitalized in intensive care in Île-de-France, which includes Paris, reached 1,152 on Monday at 11 a.m. according to the regional health agency (ARS), more so than at the height of the second epidemic wave, in the fall. Hospitals and clinics in Ile-de-France had not received as many coronavirus patients in intensive care since November 13, the date on which the agency had identified 1,134.

In fact, over the weekend, patients were referred due to the overcrowding of the hospital. Covid-19 patients from the northern region of Altos in France began to be transferred to Belgium when hospitals reached their saturation point.

The regional health agency confirms the establishment of intensive care beds in several Belgian hospitals to help the French cope with the saturation of facilities. In Paris, Castex admitted that the hospital situation was extremely tense.

The decision in the hands of Macron

“We all have to reconcile different dimensions of the life of our nation: protecting the weakest, […] protect our health system, protect us from the anguish that accompanies isolation, (…) protect by educating our children and young people who need it, protect also by allowing economic and social life to continue “, Emmanuel Macron continued, arguing that “it is this set that is needed at all times, permanently, to take into account in an appropriate and proportionate manner and by looking at the reality of our epidemic, city by city, territory by territory.

The head of state, who should meet the Health Defense Council in the next few hours, also announced at the same press conference the suspension “as a precaution” of vaccination with AstraZeneca in France “until tomorrow afternoon “, when the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has issued a new opinion on this vaccine.

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