French hospitals on brink amid record covid cases ‘staff are exhausted’

Health care workers in France have reportedly grown “exhausted” amid the growing demand on the country’s health system. An intensive care unit doctor in Clamart outside Paris has spoken out over the “weariness” suffered by staff. It comes as France sets a new daily record of Covid cases with 208,000 new infections recorded over the past 24 hours. The county has already been facing the highest case rate in Europe.

Charles Damoisel told France 24: “Now we are two years into the evolution of this disease, two years of waves.

“Two years of additional work to manage the waves.

“Unfortunately now staff are exhausted.

“They feel a certain weariness.”

Despite record cases number, the French Prime Minister Jean Castex has stuck to relatively mild measures.

Large gatherings have been capped while eating and drinking on public transport has been banned.

The French Government has stopped short of closing pubs and bars ahead of New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Mr Castex told a press conference on Monday: “I know that it feels like a film without ending, but a year ago we started our vaccination campaign and now we are one of the best vaccinated and best-protected people in the world.”

The situation in hospitals was already worrying because of the Delta variant, Mr Veran said, with Omicron yet to have an impact, something he said would eventually happen.

The flu will further complicate things for hospitals, he added.

“As for Omicron, I would no longer talk about a wave.

“This is a groundswell, where several waves combine to form one massive wave,” Mr Veran said.