The pressure for a stricter closure grows on Macron in a France with rampant infections

Protest by students of the Drancy institute most affected by coronavirus before the Avicenna hospital in Seine-Saint-Denis, in France.CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

"What are you waiting for?"

The headline of the

newspaper

Tuesday, which showed the French President, Emmanuel Macron, sitting with crossed arms, summarizes the frustration that epidemiologists and health officials have been expressing for days about the situation, on the verge of overflowing, they say, of the pandemic in France.

The pressing question came as France had just passed the second wave peak in intensive care bed occupancy on Monday, with 4,974 on Monday and more than 5,000 on Tuesday, down from 4,903 at the worst last fall.

It also arrives on the eve of a new council of ministers this Wednesday where possible new measures should be analyzed to try to stop the third wave of the pandemic.

So far, Macron has resisted all external and internal pressures to order another strict confinement, betting on the acceleration of vaccination.

Things are no longer so clear and the Elysee has announced that the president will address the French at 20.00 to talk about the situation and, foreseeably, announce new measures.

There are more disturbing figures.

In areas such as the Paris region - one of the most affected and officially confined again, although with very lax measures - ICU capacity is already at 129.4%.

The incidence rate in this area reaches 641 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (weekly measurement) compared to the national average of 371. And in some of its departments, such as Seine-Saint-Denis, one of the most affected in the country , shoots up to 761 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, accompanied by a hospitalization rate of 160% and one of the lowest vaccination rates in France, 7.96%.

At the foot of the Saint Denis basilica, the imposing necropolis of the French kings located in the poorest department of mainland France, Jallal was rushing Tuesday afternoon to pick up his street stall on this market day without knowing if he will return to reopen soon.

"I do not care if they confine us again if it serves to save lives, but the problem is that we do not know anything, the Government keeps us in suspense, it plays with us," lamented this trader who says he has "no choice" but continue selling while you can despite the fact that, he admits, he is "afraid" of an epidemic that does not remit.

That fear is shared by many experts.

On Sunday, 41 crisis medical directors of the AP-HP, the Paris public hospital system, warned on a rostrum in the

of the "catastrophic situation" they are experiencing and that, if things do not change, there will be to prepare to do a “patient selection”.

On the same day, in

, nine other public health doctors accused the Government of "hypocritically evading its responsibility" by "imposing on health personnel the decision of which patient should live."

The head of the resuscitation service at the Bichat hospital in Paris, Jean-François Timsit, even believes that things may get worse and sooner: "Mathematically, the figures can only progress (...) in two weeks, there will be 600 deaths a day," he warns. .

"We will not allow hospitals to be saturated and the sick have to be selected," Health Minister Olivier Véran replied to the National Assembly on Tuesday.

The Government has insisted that it was necessary to wait and see if the "reinforced measures" - avoid talking about reconfinement - taken in the 19 most affected departments, including Paris, with the closure of non-essential shops and limitation of movements within 10 kilometers of the home , they begin to take effect, something that could only begin to be measured this week.

In the last hours, the meetings at the highest level have not stopped and will culminate with Macron's speech this Wednesday in prime time.

It will be the first time the president has made a formal speech to the French since the beginning of the year.

However, the pressure does not cease to adopt new measures, at least a possible total closure of schools - taking advantage of the fact that the Easter holidays will soon begin - to try to lower the incidence.

The Executive has always insisted that this would be a "last resort" in view of its impact on both students and working parents.

The key to getting out of the pandemic, critics and defenders of the Government's methods agree, is to promote the vaccination of the population.

But although the process has accelerated - slightly more than 11 million vaccines have already been administered, which means that 11.64% of the French have received at least one dose (only 3.96% already have the two necessary ) - is still insufficient.

The Government will open in the next days 35 “

” throughout the country to speed up the process.

In total, the Executive wants to have vaccinated, by mid-May, at least 20 million people and, by mid-June, 30 million, that is, two thirds of the population over 18 years of age.