PARIS: The French Health Ministry has asked regional health agencies and hospitals to go into “crisis organisation” from Feb. 18 to prepare for a possible surge in coronavirus cases due to highly contagious variants, Le Journal Du Dimanche reported on Sunday.
The move, which would echo measures taken in March and November 2020 when France went into national lockdowns, involves increasing the number of hospital beds available, delaying non- urgent surgery and mobilising all medical staff resources.
“This crisis organisation must be implemented in each region, regardless of the level of hospital stress and must be operational from Thursday Feb. 18,” health authority DGS said in a memo cited by the newspaper.
The DGS was not immediately available for comment to Reuters.
France reported 21,231 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Saturday, slightly up from 20,701 on Friday, taking the total cumulative number in France to 3,448,617, the sixth-highest in the world.
In contrast with…