In epicentre of French virus outbreak, medical workers believe peak has passed
PARIS - As head of the urgent cases team in the Mulhouse
ambulance service, Marc Noizet has been at the eye of the coronavirus
storm that swept through this eastern French city. In the past few days,
he has noticed a change.
“Things are getting better,” he said of the region around Mulhouse, the epicentre of France’s deadliest outbreak. His crews are being called out to fewer coronavirus-related cases. “That allows the staff to rest a bit, to take a breath.”
Public health officials in the Grand-Est region, near France’s border with Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg, say it is premature to say the crisis is over, but they believe they have passed the peak of the epidemic.
The virus hit the region earlier and harder than anywhere else in France, in large part because of a five-day prayer gathering at an evangelical church in Mulhouse where dozens of worshippers were infected.
The more positive trend now could provide a roadmap for how other regions and countries still in the thick of the outbreak will eventually emerge.
The number of people in intensive care units in the Grand-Est region being treated for coronavirus is ticking down; as of Thursday it was 937 people, 13 fewer than a day earlier. That was the sixth consecutive day the figure had fallen.
The total death toll has kept rising this week, but the rate of increase has slowed. On the worst day of the outbreak, April 3, 141 people died. On April 9, 82 people died.
“We can say that we passed the peak,” said Laurent Tritsch, chief doctor of the fire and rescue service in the Lower Rhine, part of the Grand-Est region.
France as a whole has more than 86,000 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and has registered more than 12,210 deaths, the fourth highest death toll in the world after Italy, Spain and the United States.
“Things are getting better,” he said of the region around Mulhouse, the epicentre of France’s deadliest outbreak. His crews are being called out to fewer coronavirus-related cases. “That allows the staff to rest a bit, to take a breath.”
Public health officials in the Grand-Est region, near France’s border with Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg, say it is premature to say the crisis is over, but they believe they have passed the peak of the epidemic.
The virus hit the region earlier and harder than anywhere else in France, in large part because of a five-day prayer gathering at an evangelical church in Mulhouse where dozens of worshippers were infected.
The more positive trend now could provide a roadmap for how other regions and countries still in the thick of the outbreak will eventually emerge.
The number of people in intensive care units in the Grand-Est region being treated for coronavirus is ticking down; as of Thursday it was 937 people, 13 fewer than a day earlier. That was the sixth consecutive day the figure had fallen.
The total death toll has kept rising this week, but the rate of increase has slowed. On the worst day of the outbreak, April 3, 141 people died. On April 9, 82 people died.
“We can say that we passed the peak,” said Laurent Tritsch, chief doctor of the fire and rescue service in the Lower Rhine, part of the Grand-Est region.
France as a whole has more than 86,000 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus and has registered more than 12,210 deaths, the fourth highest death toll in the world after Italy, Spain and the United States.
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