Contagion relapse amid November gives a “one-two punch” to France

By Nabi Ferdaoussi

France was too late to come up with all-encompassing testing mechanisms, compared to other countries like Germany, blunder that led to a contagion relapse in as early as November.  

After a short respite from the first wave of the pandemic, France witnessed a contagion relapse as the summer lull drew its closure, a relapse that ever more sunk the ICU bed capacities in the countries’ regions. 

The skyrocketing surge in the case count is coterminous with the dramatic increase in the rate of ICU bed occupancy.  However, French authorities have already predicted such morbid relapse, which they infer from the bustling movements of people and, in turn, the loose approach they adopt therewith to stymie the spread of the pandemic. 

While the month of April registered the greatest toll of ICU bed occupancy, an uptick in this toll is all the more pronounced as the month of August kicked in, soaring more and more in September, but not reaching April’s critical figure. 

According to the latest reports of the Agence régionale de Santé, as of Monday November 30, 2020,the Ile-de-France regionreports 10,890 deaths in total, including62 deaths in 24 hours. There are currently 793(+7) people in ICU and 5,726 people at the hospital. 

Patients in ICU are generally 60 years old and 40% of patients are under 65 years old. In Île-de-France, theICU bed occupancy rate decreased to 79%, according to the latest report as of Monday November 30.

Such resurgence seems in part tied to the stringency of the lockdown measures at the regional level. Regions that were previously “loosely face-masked” met their waterloo with contagion amid the month of November, with more deaths of elderly people who comprised the largest preponderance of ICU bed occupancy.