The southern French cities of Toulouse and Montpellier this week joined Paris, Marseille and four other cities in maximum alert status to fight back the coronavirus as Covid-19 cases in France hit a record level over the weekend.
The prefecture of Montpellier, in the south, announced a maximum alert status for the city and surrounding towns starting Tuesday in a bid to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Measures include the closing of cafes and bars. The southwest city of Toulouse was doing likewise following meetings between mayors of surrounding towns and the prefect, the local state authority.
Soaring infections and increased hospitalisations put four other cities on the maximum alert list on Saturday: Lyon, Grenoble and Saint-Etienne in the southeast and Lille in the north.
It came as French health authorities on Saturday reported nearly 26,900 new daily infections in 24 hours. The count dropped to 16,100 on Sunday, but the rate of positive tests climbed to 11.5 percent. There were nearly 5,100 new hospitalisations over the past week, with 910 people in ICUs. As of Sunday, there were 32,730 Covid-19 deaths, but the actual number is likely higher due to deaths at home and incomplete reporting from hospitals or rest homes.
Nurses feel impact on work conditions
While France braced itself for a climb in critical numbers, a consultation by the National Order of Nurses published Sunday suggested that a significant number of respondents feel tired and fed up, with 37% saying the coronavirus pandemic is making them want to change jobs.
Nearly 59,400 nurses responded to the October 2-7 internal survey on the impact of the health crisis on their working conditions, out of 350,000 in the Order of Nurses. A spokesman for the order, Adrien de Casabianca, described the survey as a “consultation” without the classic methodology of a poll.
The numbers suggested that French medical facilities may not be keeping pace with the growing need, despite lessons from the height of the virus crisis last spring.
The National Order of Nurses notes that 34,000 nurses' jobs in France are currently vacant.
Nurses and other health professionals in France and elsewhere have sporadically demonstrated for higher salaries, better working conditions and more personnel. They were given small salary hikes in France starting this fall.
“Today, nurses must deal with a growth in Covid-19 cases and feel unarmed to do so,” the president of the National Order of Nurses, Patrick Chamboredon, said in a statement accompanying the survey.
With nurses “indispensable” to the functioning of the health system, “we cannot accept that,” he said.
High infection rates among homeless
Meanwhile a recent study found 40 percent of homeless people in the Paris region have contracted Covid-19, prompting health workers to call on the government to provide more emergency shelter before winter arrives.
“This disease has hit the disadvantaged hard,” Jean-François Delfraissy, the head of France’s scientific council, told radio station RMC.
The study, which was carried out from June 23 to July 2 by the Institut Pasteur in conjunction with the NGOs Médecins Sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders, MSF) and Épicentre, used a sample of 818 people at 14 MSF centres – including two food distribution sites, two migrant worker centres and 10 emergency shelters located in Paris and its suburbs.
“We were surprised at just how prevalent the virus was at certain places,” Thomas Roederer, an epidemiologist at Épicentre and co-author of the study, told FRANCE 24.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
