Intensive care units at Paris hospitals are swamped by a rise in COVID-19 patients. France President Emmanuel Macron refuses to impose a new national lockdown.
Macron decided on a national curfew and movement restrictions.
On Saturday, there were 1,429 patients in ICUs in the greater Paris region, according to its health authority. Patients in ICUs across the rest of the country rose to 4,791 - close to a peak of 4,903 recorded in the autumn.
In a letter published Sunday in a newspaper, 41 ICU and emergency doctors said hospitals in Paris were on the verge of being "overwhelmed" by the rising number of COVID patients.
The critical care doctors warned they might soon be forced to choose which patients they can treat.
"We already know that our capacity to offer care will be overwhelmed," the doctors said. "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."
The doctors said there was a "glaring mismatch between needs and available resources...We already know that our capacities will be exceeded" in two weeks.
"All indicators show that the current measures are and will be insufficient to rapidly reverse the alarming curve of contamination," they noted.
On Saturday, France recorded an additional 42,619 infections over the previous 24 hours. Paris's main health agency aims to increase ICU beds to 2,250.
