COVID beds fill up as virus pressure builds in Marseille - The Associated Press

MARSEILLE, France (AP) — All five intensive care beds dedicated to COVID patients are in use at the Laveran Military Training Hospital in Marseille, and its doctors are bracing for more.

While France’s daily case count climbed back up as summer vacations brought relaxed virus vigilance, the number of infected patients in hospitals and intensive care units stayed low and stable for several weeks.

The 70 ICU beds dedicated to virus patients in France’s second-biggest city and the surrounding Bouches-du-Rhone region were all occupied by Tuesday.

The number of ICU virus patients in the region has doubled in the past 10 days and now surpasses 100.

At least 30,800 people with the virus have died in hospitals or nursing homes in France, among the highest death tolls in the world.

Among the new virus patients, Pierre-Yves said, “Some are older but not all.

The number of people in intensive care with the virus is now at its highest level since June, but at 615 people nationwide, it’s still a fraction of the more than 7,000 ICU virus patients in the spring.

In a speech urging the public to stay “vigilant, France’s prime minister said Friday that the required isolation time for people who test positive or were possibly exposed to the virus would be reduced from 14 days to seven days.