Paris Doctors Warn Of Catastrophic Overload Of Virus Cases

PARIS (AP) — Critical care doctors in Paris say surging coronavirus infections could soon overwhelm their ability to care for the sick in the French capital’s hospitals, possibly forcing them to choose which patients they have the resources to treat.

The sobering warning was delivered Sunday in a newspaper opinion signed by 41 Paris-region doctors. Published by Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper, it comes as French President Emmanuel Macron has been vigorously defending his decision not to completely lockdown France again as he did last year. Since January, Macron’s government has instead imposed a nationwide overnight curfew and followed that with a grab-bag of other restrictions.

But with infections soaring and hospitals increasingly running short of intensive care beds, doctors have been stepping up the pressure for a full French lockdown.

The Paris-region doctors who wrote in Le Journal du Dimanche said: “We have never known such a situation, even during the worst (terror) attacks” that targeted the French capital, notably assaults by Islamic State extremists in 2015 that killed 130 people and filled Paris emergency wards with the wounded.

The doctors predicted that softer new restrictions imposed this month on Paris and some other regions won’t quickly bring the resurgent epidemic under control. They warned that hospital resources won’t be able to keep pace with needs, forcing them to practice “catastrophe medicine” in the coming weeks as cases peak.

“We already know that our capacity to offer care will be overwhelmed,” they wrote. “We will be obliged to triage patients in order to save as many lives as possible. This triage will concern all patients, with and without COVID, in particular for adult patients’ access to critical care.”

Macron remains adamant that not locking France down again this year, like some other European countries, was sound, even as more than 2,000 deaths per week push the country ever closer to the milestone of 100,000 people lost to the pandemic. The country now counts more than 94,400 dead.

“We were right not to implement a lockdown in France at the end of January because we didn’t have the explosion of cases that every model predicted,” Macron said last week. “There won’t be a mea culpa from me. I don’t have remorse and won’t acknowledge failure.”

Travelers To Spain Must Provide Negative COVID-19 Test

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Travelers bound for Spain from countries considered high-risk areas for the coronavirus will be asked to provide proof of a negative test to visit the European country, authorities said Wednesday. Starting Nov. 23, travelers to Spain will be required to submit a negative test result from within 72 hours prior to their planned departure. They will be able to do so via the internet, a smartphone application, or with a document before boarding a plane or boat. The proof of being virus-free before traveling will come on top of the temperature checks performed on arriving passengers at Spain’s airports and ports. The measure will apply to countries designated as “high risk.”

The European Union considers member nations to be high-risk zones if either their 14-day cumulative case notification rate is 50 or more and the positive test rate for COVID-19 is 4% or more, or if their 14-day cumulative case notification rate is more than 150 per 100,000 inhabitants. For non-EU countries and European nations within the visa-free Schengen travel area, Spain considers those with an accumulated 150 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over 14 days. Health minister Salvador Illa said the government took the measure in line with guidelines established by the EU last month. He said that EU members had opted for the use of “diagnostic tests and not quarantines” to enable safe travel inside the bloc. Spain’s robust tourism industry, a pillar of its economy, has taken a huge hit due to fears and restrictions caused by the virus. Madrid’s regional authorities, which have been asking for tighter controls for the capital’s airport, celebrated the decision it had been demanding for months. However, the number of imported coronavirus cases to Spain has been negligible, according to Illa. Spain’s strict lockdown in the spring reined in its first national outbreak, but it did not completely eliminate the virus from the population. The virus rebounded when Spain reactivated its economic and social life in the summer, forcing a new round of restrictions, including nationwide nightly curfew to be applied in recent weeks. Like most of Europe, Spain is struggling to contain a resurgence of virus infections. Spain has surpassed 40,000 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 after another 349 fatalities were reported by health officials on Wednesday. Still, Illa tried to offer some hope while emphasizing the need for vigilance. “We continue to show a downward tendency (of the contagion spread), but it is still very worrying, with high levels of hospitalizations and high level of ICU occupancy,” Illa said. ___ Follow AP’s coronavirus pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak