PARIS (Reuters) – France must do everything possible to avoid a new closure of the coronavirus as pressure on hospitals increases, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Sunday when the country reported more than 26,000 new cases.
The French government has so far resisted the pressure of some health experts to close a new, third time in light of the increasing case numbers.
Instead, the nationwide introduced hangout and weekend closure in two regions struggling to curb outbreaks, while large shopping malls had to close.
‘We must use all available weapons to prevent a lockout. I have never hidden it, let’s get vaccinated, protect ourselves, test it, ‘Castex said in an interview on the Twitch website.
The health ministry reported 26,343 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, down from 29,759 the previous day, while the number of people who died from the virus rose by 140 to a total of 90,429.
Meanwhile, the number of people in intensive care units rose by 57 to 4,127, while emergency recovery units stood at almost 82% of capacity, the highest since the end of November when France was in its second exclusion.
“The situation is not getting better, there are an increasing number of infections and hospitals are heavily burdened with many patients, whose average age is getting lower and lower and who do not always have disease conditions,” Castex said.
The government plans to transport about 100 patients by air or special train from the greater Paris region to other cities this week to ease the pressure on hospitals in the capital.
Labor Minister Elizabeth Borne said on Sunday she had tested positive for COVID-19 and would continue to work, the youngest senior French official to contract the virus.
Meanwhile, France’s vaccination program has increased rapidly with the 67,134 first shots on Sunday bringing the total to 5,128,872 or 7.7% of the population, the health ministry said. About 2,239,389 received both injections as of Sunday.
Reporting by Leigh Thomas and Jean-Stephane Brosse; Edited by Edmund Blair and Jane Merriman