COVID-19 patients flown from Paris to Nantes as France begins evacuations

Tuesday, a coronavirus patient was transferred from Paris to Nantes by a civil security helicopter, as part of the transfer of patients to relieve hospitals in the Ile-de-France region which are saturated by the pandemic.

The pressure on resuscitation continued to climb Monday as more than 4,200 coronavirus patients in these services, including 400 new admissions compared to the day before, according to Public Health France.

In total, 4,219 coronavirus patients were in intensive care in French hospitals on Monday, the highest since the end of November 2020.

Among them were 401 admissions in the last 24 hours.

More than a quarter of these intensive care patients (1,166) are hospitalized in Ile-de-France where the particularly worrying situation is pushing the health authorities to organize patient transfers to other regions.

The situation is also tense in Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur and in Hauts-de-France, regions which each have 513 patients in intensive care.

With 1,609 new hospitalizations in 24 hours across the country, there are now 25,469 COVID-19 patients in hospitals in France.

333 new deaths were recorded at the hospital in 24 hours.

In total, 90,788 Covid patients have died since the start of the pandemic, including 65,477 in hospital.

The positivity rate of PCR tests carried out in the country has remained stable for three days at 7.4 percent, and 6,471 new positive cases have been declared since, a figure that is mechanically low every day after the weekend, when fewer tests are carried out. 

Vaccinations continued to advance, with 5,135,616 people having received at least one injection.

Faced with the COVID-19 crisis, President Emmanuel Macron announced at a press conference in Montauban that "new decisions" would "undoubtedly" be taken in the coming days.

He referred to restrictions taken "in an appropriate and proportionate manner".

Asked about a possible reconfinement of Île-de-France, the Head of State called for looking at "the reality of the epidemic, city by city, territory by territory".