PARIS (Reuters) – France reported on Saturday that 5,273 people were in intensive care (ICU) for COVID-19, up 19 from the previous day, when the country entered its third national lockdown to help combat the pandemic.
The government had tried to keep the lid on new COVID cases with curfews and regional measures, but starting Saturday, and for the next four weeks, schools and non-essential businesses across the country will remain closed.
Saturday’s rise in ICU patients followed a much bigger jump the day before – the highest in five months, at 145. President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to provide more hospital beds for critically ill COVID-19 patients.
Macron had hoped to keep France out of the pandemic without having to impose a third national lockdown that would further hit an economy still reeling from last year’s crisis.
But new strains of the virus have spread across France and much of Europe amid a slower introduction of anti-COVID vaccines in the European Union than in some countries, including Britain and the United States.
Reporting by Sarah White and Blandine Henault; Editing by Gareth Jones; Editing by Gareth Jones