PARIS – Over the course of a single overnight shift this week, three new COVID-19 patients were rushed into Dr.
Karim Debbat’s small intensive care ward in the southern French city of Arles. His service now has more virus patients than during the pandemic’s first wave, and is scrambling to create new ICU beds elsewhere in the hospital to accommodate the sick.Similar scenes are playing out across France.
COVID-19 patients now occupy 40% of ICU beds in the Paris region, and nearly a quarter in ICUs nationwide, as several weeks of growing infections among young people spread to vulnerable populations.Despite being one of the world’s richest nations — and one of those hardest hit when the pandemic first washed over the world — France hasn’t.