After giving more details as for the government’s strategy to come to an end with coronavirus, this Sunday April 19, 2020 Edouard Philippe gives an update at the time the curve of the COVID-19 epidemic has reached a plateau.
This strategy consists in flattening the curve of the evolution of cases as much as possible and to reinforce hospitals. The reason behind this strategy is that coronavirus can lead to serious cases requiring hospitalization in intensive care units. But, the capacity of hospitals is limited. Services being overcrowded lead to limited care. As beds are needed, doctors have to renounce put some profiles in intensive care whereas they could have been normally treated. In this context, the death toll rises.
To avoid this scenario, it’s necessary that the curve of serious cases remains below the capacity of care. At the beginning of the crisis, this capacity was of 5,000 beds. Yet, coronavirus being highly contagious (one person could contaminate 2-3 people), then to limit the propagation, the government urges French to adopt health recommendations before putting the country on confinement. At the same time, measures are also made to rise the capacity of hospitals.
This Sunday April 19, 2020, Edouard Philippe gave an update on the health crisis. He says the effectiveness of the confinement allowed to slow down the propagation of the virus. After a peak of 7,100 beds taken in ICU, this number lowers to 5,800 on April 19, 2020 out of 10,500.
Prime Minister also says that during confinement, French proved their sensibility by limiting their trips out: -86% to stores, -39% to delicatessens and pharmacies, -79% to transit stations and -55% to offices.
