PARIS (Reuters) – France’s health ministry has called on regional health agencies and hospitals to enter a “crisis organization” to prepare for a possible increase in coronavirus cases as a result of highly contagious variants , reported Le Journal Du Dimanche.
The measure, which would echo the measures taken in March and November when France closed, involves increasing the number of hospital beds available, delaying non-urgent surgery and mobilizing all medical staff resources.
“This crisis organization must be implemented in each region, regardless of the level of hospital stress and must be operational from Thursday 18 February,” the DGS health authority said in a note quoted by the newspaper Sunday.
The DGS said in an email response to Reuters that the note reflected an “anticipatory approach” in view of continued pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Its goal is to mobilize all health workers in the country in the event of an outbreak of the epidemic, which can occur as virus variants circulate,” he said.
Reuters could not independently confirm the content of the note quoted by Le Journal Du Dimanche.
France reported 21,231 new confirmed cases of coronavirus on Saturday, slightly above 20,701 on Friday, bringing the total accumulated in France to 3,448,617, the sixth highest in the world.
In contrast to some of its neighbors struggling to control more contagious variants, France has resisted a new blockade, hoping there will be a national curfew from 15 December containing the pandemic.
Some scientists, however, believe President Emmanuel Macron played a gamble in deciding against a new closure.
At the same time, France lags behind several other European countries, such as Britain, in the deployment of vaccines.
Health Minister Olivier Veran, who noted that the variant first detected in Britain accounted for 25% of new infections confirmed in France, said on Thursday that the government would decide in the coming weeks whether more national restrictions were needed. hard.
Arnaud Fontanet, a member of the scientific council advising the government on COVID-19 policy, told Europe 1 radio on Saturday that he feared this variant could represent the majority of cases in March.
Report by Dominique Vidalon and Jean-Stephane Brosse; Edited by Barbara Lewis and Alexander Smith