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Coronavirus: Patients evacuated using military aircraft and high-speed trains from worst-hit areas of France

Some have even left the country, officials say

Zoe Tidman
Monday 30 March 2020 17:21 BST
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Medical staff wearing protective suit walks as a patient is embarked aboard a French medical helicopter to be evacuated to a German hospital during the coronavirus outbreak
Medical staff wearing protective suit walks as a patient is embarked aboard a French medical helicopter to be evacuated to a German hospital during the coronavirus outbreak (Frederick Florin / AFP via Getty Images)

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Hundreds of patients have been evacuated from hospitals in France’s worst-affected areas during the coronavirus pandemic, including some by military aircraft and high-speed trains.

Jerome Salomon, the national director general for health, said 250 people have been moved elsewhere in the country, and some have even gone to Germany.

Army aircraft and boats have been used in the transfers, he said.

People receiving treatment in eastern France have been moved in a bid to ease pressure on overstretched hospitals in the area, which has been badly-hit by the coronavirus outbreak. ​

An army aircraft and two high-speed TGV trains transferred around 40 critically ill patients out of the Grand Est region over the weekend.

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