PARIS (Reuters) – France reported on Saturday that 5,273 people were in intensive care units (ICUs) for COVID-19, an increase of 19 from the previous day as the country entered its third national closure to help combat the pandemic.
The government had been trying to keep the cover of the new COVID cases with curfews and regional measures, but from Saturday and over the next four weeks, non-essential schools and businesses across the country will remain closed.
The rise in ICU patients on Saturday followed a much larger jump the day before: the highest in five months, at 145. President Emmanuel Macron has promised more hospital beds to care for critically ill COVID-19 patients.
Macron hoped to push France out of the pandemic without having to impose a third national blockade that would further favor an economy that is still collapsing from last year’s downfall.
But new strains of the virus have spread across France and much of Europe, amid a slower deployment of COVID vaccines in the European Union than in some countries, including Britain and the United States.
Report by Sarah White and Blandine Henault; Edited by Gareth Jones; Edited by Gareth Jones