The Regional Health Agency of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region has triggered the so-called ‘white plan’ in the face of rising hospital admissions of coronavirus patients.

“Hospital tension has increased for several days with currently 1,188 Covid-19 patients in conventional hospitalisation (530 at the end of October) and 505 in critical care (265 at the end of October). The majority of patients are not vaccinated,” the Health Agency said.

The plan will mean that more beds will be added to critical care units, volunteers, such as retired doctors and nurses, will be invited to come in to help, and planned operations will be cancelled.

On Wednesday, December 8, the benchmark infection rate in PACA stood at 446 per 100,000, while three weeks earlier, on November 17, the rate was 101.7.

A number of French regions invoked their own white plans last week, including Lyon and the Grand Est.