Could Covid defeat hospitals? As the French President Emmanuel Macron revealed in the regional daily press his four-step lockdown exit plan on Thursday April 29, the question is on many doctors’ lips, like anesthesiologist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Pr. Jean-Michel Constantin says: “Teams are on their knees”, he told FranceInfo, worried.
Not everything is lost then, but a new epidemic surge could have major damages. The hospital “will not be able to cope with a fourth wave”, the anesthesiologist warns, calling the French to be extra cautious when exiting lockdown. As for the lockdown exit plan, it “seems cautious”, the professor continues. “It’s wide enough to give a little bit of a prospect”, he says, adding this “plan will only hold if there is respect and citizen awareness from everyone”.
A fragile balance that will have to be protected to prevent any epidemic resurgence: “the decrease will be slow. We need to spare room in hospitals”, Constantin explains to FranceInfo. And to preserve this balance, vaccination remains the best way to make it: “I think vaccination is coherence on the way it takes place. We’re all frustrated because it’s slow, but it’s slow because there are no doses. But I think we better not worry. This vaccination goes on and comes along nicely, and evenly on the European level”, the anesthesiologist adds. Hospitals need help to keep their heads above the water and make sure everyone can exit the crisis.
