Covid19: Paris doctors warn of "overwhelmed" hospitals, difficult choices

In a letter written to the French Journal du Dimanche, 14 doctors in Paris have warned of dire consequences if the health system was overwhelmed, even as Paris and Europe struggle with the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We have never known such a situation, even during the worst (terror) attacks," the letter reads. "…We already know that our capacity to offer care will be overwhelmed. We will be obliged to triage patients in order to save as many lives as possible. This triage will concern all patients, with and without COVID, in particular for adult patients' access to critical care."

Doctors have urged people to stay home and follow national COVID-19 guidelines to prevent the spread of the disease and to prevent them from making choices that could prioritise one set of patients over the other due to overwhelmed facilities.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron remains adamant that he will not put the country under lockdown even as France's death toll inches closer to the 100,000 mark with 2000 deaths per week.

"We were right not to implement a lockdown in France at the end of January because we didn't have the explosion of cases that every model predicted," Macron was quoted as saying last week. "There won't be a mea culpa from me. I don't have remorse and won't acknowledge failure."

France's strategy has been to broadly vaccinate the population, with 15% of its adult population having received the Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines.