Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy. – JM HAEDRICH / SIPA
Assuring that the government wants to avoid such an end, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, described on Tuesday the sorting of patients in hospitals, due to the increase in cases of coronavirus, as a “red line absolute ”.
“We are all touched, upset by what we see as testimonies from caregivers, doctors, in front of the difficulties which are theirs, in front of the increase in the number of cases in intensive care (…) and we want to do everything so that their situation can be as tenable as possible. There is an absolute red line, it is the sorting of patients, ”said Bruno Le Maire on RCJ radio.
A warning from doctors
“We certainly do not want to reach a point where hospital staff would be forced to sort out the sick,” he insisted. With more than 4,970 patients in intensive care on Monday, the peak of the second wave of the epidemic in the fall was exceeded in France.
In two separate stands at the Sunday newspaper and at World, hospital doctors have alerted to this filling of intensive care units, fearing that this would force them to sort patients for lack of a sufficient number of beds to accommodate them all.
“Not a bet” but “a choice”
Asked about the government’s strategy of not having reconfigured earlier to avoid an outbreak of the epidemic, the Minister of the Economy defended the “choice” of the executive. “It is not a bet that we have made (…), it is a choice (…) to preserve the French as long as possible, to avoid overly restrictive health restriction measures”, on the economy, the social situation and the morale of the French, he argued.
“As long as it was possible we kept this choice,” said Bruno Le Maire, while the President of the Republic said on Sunday that “nothing” had been decided on a possible additional turn of the screw in the 19 departments. most affected.