Paris hospitals to reach capacity in 48 hours, says head of French Hospital Federation
A spike in coronavirus patients means hospitals in and around Paris will reach saturation point within 48 hours, the head of the French Hospital Federation said on Friday, with the peak not expected until April, Reuters reports.
Paris and its suburbs now account for over a quarter of the 29,000 confirmed coronavirus infections in French hospitals, with almost 1,300 now in intensive care. The death toll nationwide as of Thursday evening stood at 1,696.
“We will clearly need help in the Ile-de-France (Greater Paris region) because what happened in the east is coming here,” Frederic Valletoux, the federation’s president told BFM TV.
He was referring to the Grand Est region, where the first major cluster took hold in France and where hospitals are already overwhelmed, with the army helping to transfer some critically ill patients to other cities.
“We will be at the limit of our capacities in 24 or 48 hours. We will need to show real solidarity between regions, hospitals and increase the numbers of patient transfers.”
Officials in the Paris area have been scrambling to find more intensive care beds, ventilators and medical staff and spread the load of patients across the capital and its wider suburbs.
President Emmanuel Macron imposed on 17 March a lockdown to slow the spread of the virus, but doctors say they expect a wave of cases next week after the government pressed ahead with local elections and thousands of people mingled in parks and streets before they were confined at home.
“If we let hospitals cope by themselves, and let every territory that has been taken by the epidemic cope alone, then we shall head towards a catastrophe,” Valletoux said.
Ireland and Northern Ireland are preparing improvised morgues as they brace for a sharp increase in the number of deaths from coronavirus.
Health officials in Dublin on Thursday night announced 10 more deaths, bringing the republic’s death toll to 19, and warned that Ireland was just starting a curve that would sweep upwards.
They also announced 255 new infections, bringing the confirmed total to 1,819. Clusters in nursing homes and healthcare settings are of particular concern.
Liz Canavan, assistant secretary for social policy for the taoiseach, told a media briefing the government was preparing temporary morgues. “We are still, largely, in the preparation phase – getting the country ready and putting the necessary infrastructure in place, in particular the medical infrastructure, to deal with the surge when it comes.”
Authorities in Northern Ireland, which has recorded 10 deaths and 241 cases of infection, plan to use an army base in County Down as a morgue and to set up field hospitals at several sites, possibly including Belfast’s Titanic quarter and the former Maze prison. The health minister, Robin Swann, has warned deaths could exceed the more than 3,500 people killed during the Troubles.
Covid-19 spreads across the African continent
Jason Burke, Guardian
Covid-19 continues its spread across the African continent with 3243 cases now recorded, and 83 deaths, writes Jason Burke.
The 56m inhabitants of South Africa woke up to the first day of a rigorous lockdown enforced by the police and army. Streets in much of Johannesburg were quiet, though there was significant activity in many high-density neighbourhoods amid complaints that the tight restrictions on movements would deny many vital income.
Similar strict measures are now being rolled out across the continent, though some governments, such as Zimbabwe, are yet to impose full curfews.
Eritrea, one of the most authoritarian states on the continent, has so far only suspended public transport and schools. More than 20 countries have suspended almost all passenger flights.
South Africa’s high total is partly explained by an aggressive and relatively extensive testing effort, and its official figures are seen by experts as reliable, in contrast to those of Egypt, on 495, for example.
The overall figure for the continent is almost certainly a significant underestimate, as testing had been extremely limited in many places.
Amid fears of massive casualties from the virus across the developing world, international health officials say there is still a chance Africa can avert catastrophe.
About half of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa still have a “narrowing” opportunity to contain the disease, Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO World Health Organisation director for Africa said.
“It has been a very dramatic evolution,” Moeti told reporters. “Countries need to work on this containment while preparing for a possible, broader expansion of the virus.”
There is widespread recognition that the virus would be very difficult to control in the overcrowded conditions of many poor neighbourhoods of Africa’s major cities or refugee camps, and could hit vulnerable communities such as sufferers of HIV or tuberculosis very hard.
“We still have a window… it is narrowing every day as data on the geographic spread to more and more countries tell us,” Moeti said.
Guardian
