Paris, with one third of France's coronvirus cases, sees fall in numbers

Senior Paris health officials said on Thursday there was reason for optimism in the fight against the new coronavirus in the worst-hit French region after the number of hospitalisations and admissions to intensive care units had begun to fall.

Paris and its suburbs account for more than a third of more than 31,700 confirmed infections in French hospitals.

Its healthcare facilities, including intensive care units, have been under severe pressure with officials scrambling to find more beds, ventilators and staff, and to spread the load of patients across the capital and its wider suburbs.

Almost 40% of France's 10,600 hospital deaths have been in the region and some 2,500 people remain in intensive care. However, since the country was put into lockdown on March 17, the indications are that the situation is improving.

The national Public Health Authority on Wednesday recorded for the first time a drop in hospital admissions due to the COVID-19 disease.

"The deaths continue, but in the medical sector the deceleration is extremely clear," Bertrand Godeau, internal medicine chief at the Mondor hospital, told reporters in a conference call on Thursday.

"This is a positive message. We have to continue the confinement until mid-May because the health professionals are seeing some palpable results."

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