The French health authorities have confirmed this Tuesday more than 33,000 new infections of COVID-19, while the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, has announced that the President, Emmanuel Macron, will present new restrictions on Wednesday to try to stop the pandemic.
Specifically, according to data provided by the French Ministry of Health, there have been 33,417 additional cases of the disease, which have raised the overall balance of the European country to 1,198,695 positives.
Likewise, the French health authorities have confirmed the death due to COVID-19 of 523 more people, so that the fatalities due to the disease already stand at 35,541.
The hospitalization figures also continue to rise. So far, 18,978 people remain hospitalized in France with COVID-19, 1,194 more than during the previous day. Of these, 2,918 are admitted to intensive care units, 148 more than the figure known on Monday.
This figure implies that half of the intensive care beds are already occupied in France by COVID-19 patients. The current capacity of the intensive care units, which not only admit patients affected by the disease, is 5,800 beds, which the authorities plan to increase in the coming days.
French Executive spokesman Gabriel Attal has warned that “in two weeks” France will have “the same number of patients in intensive care units as during the peak of the first wave.”
In this sense, he pointed out that “new measures will have to be taken.” On the table is an extension of the curfew currently in force in France, perimeter lockdowns or a general lockdown.
In the same vein, Castex has expressed himself, which has considered that the new restrictions, which Macron will announce in a televised speech after the meeting that the country’s Council of Ministers will hold this Wednesday morning, are “essential”, according to reports ‘Le Figaro’.
