PARIS (Reuters) – The coronavirus situation is worsening in the greater Paris region, where hospitals are under enormous strain, AP HP Paris CEO Martin Hirsch said on Wednesday.
Hirsch told RTL radio that there were two options for containing the disease: a local weekend closure, already existing in other parts of the country, or a wider closure in the region.
“The virus is out of control. Today there are as many patients in the intensive care units as at the peak of the second wave, ”he said.
Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Tuesday that the time had come for more coronavirus restrictions in the Paris region.
Hirsch said nearly 1,100 people were in intensive care with COVID-19 in the region, and that figure could reach 1,700 by the end of the month if the current trend continues.
In normal times, the large Paris region has an intensive care bed capacity of around 1,000, Hirsch said.
In France as a whole, there were 4,239 patients in intensive care with COVID-19 as of Tuesday, near a four-month high.
Reports by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Benoit Van Overstraeten; Edited by Himani Sarkar and Andrew Heavens