The coronavirus epidemic is worsening in France, while a 16-year-old girl died in Ile-de-France from Covid-19. A total of 1696 people have died to date.
A new evacuation of coronavirus patients in eastern France is scheduled for Friday, March 27, 2020, as the epidemic worsens in the country with nearly 1,700 deaths, including a 16-year-old girl who has become the youngest victim.
To relieve hospitals in the Grand Est, this evacuation by air comes the day after an unprecedented transfer of patients from the East to other regions by medical TGV, in order to ease the pressure on healthcare establishments.
In addition, Emmanuel Macron gathers the social partners in audioconference at 11:00 am, to discuss in particular the means of reconciling the pursuit of economic activity and the protection of employees during the health crisis, while the derogations from the labour law worry unions.
Towards a saturation of resuscitation services in Ile-de-France?
The epidemic continues to worsen – 365 additional deaths in 24 hours – and raises fears that the resuscitation services in Ile-de-France will soon become saturated.
It is from this region, and more specifically from Essonne according to Le Parisien, that Julie A., the 16-year-old teenager who died in hospital, comes. “We will never have an answer, it is unlivable,” told AFP his mother, Sabine, recounting his ordeal after first negative tests at Covid-19, then a positive test.
Called in the middle of the night by the hospital, adds Sabine, “I panicked, there are words that make you understand,” she said, referring to the last moments of her daughter.
“Extremely rare” in young people
For the Director-General of Health, Professor Jérôme Salomon, information concerning the young girl is “important, since severe forms in young subjects are extremely rare” . “They happen from time to time for multiple reasons. We see it in particular in certain viral infections (with) extremely severe exceptional forms ”, he underlined.
Thursday evening, the last assessment brought to 1696 the number of deaths of Covid-19 recorded in the hospital since the beginning of the epidemic at the end of January, and 3375 patients were in intensive care (“548 in one day), on a total of 13,904 (»2,365) patients hospitalized in France.
Philippe Juvin, head of the emergency department at the Pompidou hospital in Paris, suggested a “massive” transfer of patients to “the regions of France and Europe” where the epidemic will not arrive before two or three weeks, deploring the shortages of protective equipment and tests everywhere in France. “Sometimes I ask myself the question: what are we not missing? He said.
“Neither the caregivers nor we were prepared for this kind of event,” said Thursday evening AFP Dr. Benjamin Davido, crisis medical director at the Raymond-Poincaré Hospital in Garches, who “fears the reached saturation ”in Ile-de-France, when its 26 intensive care beds are already full.
Cruel situation in retirement homes
The epidemic, which killed at least five doctors, also killed the first gendarmerie.
The situation is particularly cruel in retirement homes where the number of deaths is not exactly known but is at least in the tens of deaths.
Confined to their home for more than a week, 85% of French people are “worried” about themselves and their family, according to an Ifop-Fiducial survey carried out on March 24-25 for CNews and Sud Radio, compared to 44% at the end of January.
When will the containment be extended?
The government will announce “in a few days” the likely extension of the containment. The scientific council recommended extending it, suggesting a total of six weeks , until the end of April.
The mobilization is also military with the announcement by Emmanuel Macron of an operation “Resilience” which “will be entirely devoted to aid and support to populations, as well as to support public services to cope with the epidemic, in metropolitan France and overseas ”.
During the night of Thursday to Friday, the president announced on his Twitter account after a discussion with his American counterpart Donald Trump, a “new important initiative” with the United States and other countries facing the Covid-19 crisis, without further details.
Très bonne discussion avec @realDonaldTrump. Face à la crise du COVID-19, avec d’autres pays, nous préparons pour les prochains jours une nouvelle initiative importante.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) March 26, 2020
On the treatment side, chloroquine, currently being tested but which is debating, can be administered “under the responsibility of a doctor”, to patients with coronavirus: its use is now governed by a decree published Thursday in the Official Journal.
