A few days before Christmas, doctors warn of the progression of the Omicron variant in France. In view of the situation, some assure that stricter restrictions “may be announced soon in the emergency” to curb the virus.
Several doctors are sounding the alarm for the holiday season. “We are worried”, assures doctor Edouard Obadia, resuscitator at Claude Gallien hospital in Quincy-sous-Sénart, in Essonne, this Sunday on the BFMTV set, while the 5th wave of Covid-19 continues to exert increasing pressure on French hospitals. Enough to fear a strengthening of restrictive measures in the coming weeks, according to some health professionals.
Hospitals “already in maximum tension”
The situation of French hospitals is worrying, according to Doctor Edouard Obadia. “Our health service is already in maximum tension. (…) We are in an extremely critical phase in France”, he warns, with the approach of the holidays.
“We have already had to face for a few weeks a resurgence of patients in medicine and in critical care intensive care services”, worries Dr. Edouard Obadia.
The number of patients with Covid-19 indeed started to rise again at the end of November. Resuscitation services continue to fill up, until currently reaching 2,933 patients in critical care, according to figures released Saturday by Public Health France. The number of hospitalized patients is also increasing. For a month, the figure has almost doubled (+ 97%) with 15,370 patients in hospital currently.
“We are going to experience levels of contamination never reached”
The epidemic could also worsen in the coming weeks, due to the Omicron variant. “There are hundreds of cases (of the variant) which have been detected, but it is assumed that it is much more represented in France,” warns epidemiologist Jonathan Roux this Sunday on BFMTV.
“The number of Omicron variant cases is doubling every 2 to 3 days” in other European countries, he explains. “Which is an extremely fast pace so we think it can take Delta’s place gradually and be in the majority at the end of the year, or even at the very beginning of next year,” predicts the epidemiologist.
“We will probably know levels of contamination never reached” in January, worries Mahmoud Zureik, epidemiologist in the JDD. “The health care system is at risk of being under extreme strain” and “the country could be paralyzed if frontline trades, such as cashiers, are no longer insured,” he explains.
Stronger measures “soon in the emergency”?
Faced with this growth of the virus in France and in Europe, many of our neighbors have decided to act. The Netherlands notably decreed a new period of confinement, with restaurants and cinemas closed from this Sunday and until January 14.
For some doctors, France could soon also give a new turn of the screw. “We must start now to perhaps be ready to put measures a little stronger than just the vaccine booster”, warns Jonathan Roux.
“There is no reason why what is happening in the UK should not happen a little later here, so there are fears that in order to limit the spread of the virus it will be necessary to take measures which are more restrictive than those which are taken until now “, also assures Professor Xavier Monnet, deputy head of the intensive medical service at Bicêtre hospital, in Val-de-Marne, on BFMTV.
“The virus does not know Santa Claus or New Year’s Eve”
Taking a severe look at the measures announced by the government at the end of the last Sanitary Defense Council on Monday, epidemiologist Mahmoud Zureik speaks of “very timid” decisions “probably” decided not to “hinder the holidays”.
“The virus does not know Santa Claus or New Year’s Eve,” he recalls, however. “The restrictions that were not adopted this week, such as the curfew wanted by the scientific council for the New Year, or the extension of the school holidays, may be announced soon in the emergency, with sanitary conditions more degraded “.
The progression of the Omicron variant worries all over Europe as the end of the year holidays and its usual family and friendly gatherings approach. But this Sunday, the government maintains its line: namely to bet everything on vaccination. On our antenna, the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer assured that the executive “do everything” to avoid a new confinement. “We obviously want to prevent the French from another episode of confinement or severe restrictions,” he said.
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