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Early 2020, French hospital services faced the rapid and brutal emergence of the coronavirus (COVID-19). During the first wave in spring 2020, French hospitals were overwhelmed and the number of COVID-19 deaths reached peak levels. April 3, 2020, was the darkest day with more than *** deaths reported that day. This number, although high, decreased during the following waves at the end of 2020 and early 2021.

Vaccination, an effective weapon against severe cases

The appearance of the Omicron variant in France at the end of 2021 caused the daily number of COVID-19 cases to explode. Since the beginning of the health crisis, never had so many new cases been recorded in France in a single day. In early January 2022, nearly ** new infections were recorded each day.
However, the national vaccination effort helped reduce the pressure on hospitals. At the beginning of 2022, only ** percent of French people were unvaccinated. This vaccination campaign helped reduce the pressure on hospitals. The number of patients admitted to hospitals and critical care was lower in January 2022 than in spring 2020 and winter 2021, despite a much higher number of cases.

Hospital infrastructure in France

Some French regions are more vulnerable than others to pandemic surges. Hospital infrastructure varies from one region to another in France. Overseas regions, for example, are much less equipped with hospital beds than mainland France. In 2018, there were fewer than *** hospital beds per 100,000 inhabitants in French Guiana and Réunion, compared to *** in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
At the national level, France is less well equipped than several of its European neighbors. In 2019, Germany had twice as many hospital beds per inhabitant as France. And the trend is toward bed closures. Over 20 years, France went from *** beds to * beds per 1,000 inhabitants.