A bid to evacuate coronavirus patients from hard-hit areas of eastern France has begun, with German forces stepping in to take some to hospitals over the border.
Two specially modified TGV high-speed trains carried 36 patients from Mulhouse and Nancy toward hospitals along France’s western coast today, where the outbreak has been limited so far.
Dozens of hospital workers, flanked by police and soldiers standing guard, spent hours installing four patients in each wagon in an operation that began before dawn.
The east of France has been savaged by the deadly virus, with more cases there than anywhere else in the country.
Francois Brun, head of emergency services at the regional hospital in nearby Metz said: ‘We have to free up beds, it’s absolutely crucial that we air out these intensive care units. We’re still seeing an increase in patient numbers.’
The evacuations came as Germany sent a military plane to Strasbourg for the first time to bring two patients to a hospital in Ulm.
Two specially modified TGV high-speed trains (one pictured) carried 36 patients from Mulhouse and Nancy toward hospitals along France’s western coast today
French medics are pictured wearing hazmat suits escorting a coronavirus patient on a stretcher in Mulhouse, eastern France, before putting them on a special TGV train to the west
Today a French helicopter transported two patients to Metz and Essen in Western Germany.
‘This war will probably be won on the basis of intensive care beds, and our ability to strategically use all our intensive care resources on the national level,’ said Marie-Odile Saillard, director of the Metz regional hospital.
In total, 80 French patients have been hospitalised in Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg, European Affairs Minister Amelie de Montchalin told France Inter radio.
The minister also revealed Germany had provided France with urgently-needed ventilators as recently as yesterday.
France has been evacuating dozens over the past week from the east, hoping to stay ahead of a crisis that Prime Minister Edouard Philippe warned would only worsen over the next two weeks.
Overall nearly 4,300 coronavirus patients are in intensive care, many with severe respiratory problems requiring ventilators that officials worry could soon be in short supply.
Philippe said the government was racing to have 14,000 intensive care beds available soon, compared with around 5,000 before the outbreak began in January.
There are now 37,575 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in France, up 4,611 on the day before.
A French helicopter transported two patients to Metz and Essen (pictured landing there today) in Western Germany
One of two coronavirus patients who were transported by French military helicopter are pictured after they landed at Essen Airport in Germany today
French medics are pictured aboard one of the country’s high speed TGV trains at Nancy station in the east, ready to take coronavirus patients to the west where there are more resources
The death toll stands at 2,314, but the numbers do not include deaths reported by the roughly 7,000 retirement homes and assisted-living facilities across the country, where officials fear the virus risks spreading quickly.
Those figures will start to be reported this week, the prime minister said Sunday, warning that ‘the battle is only starting.’
The government has ordered one billion face masks, mainly from China, but warned that worldwide demand for protective equipment meant they might not arrive soon enough for medical workers facing shortages.
France has been on lockdown since March 17 in a bid to limit the outbreak, a situation it now expects to last until at least April 15.
Left to right: Metz’ mayor Dominique Gros, Mercy hospital’s emergencies head and president of SAMU Urgences de France president Francois Braun, Nancy mayor Laurent Henart and Nancy hospital emergency units’ head Lionel Nace talk next to a medicalised TGV train today