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Emmanuel Macron typifies leaders across Europe.
Key points:
- Doctors are warning of hospital bed shortages across Paris as COVID-19 patients clog ICU wards
- President Macron has introduced a 9pm to 6am curfew across Paris and other metro areas
- Other European countries such as Spain and the UK are experiencing similar spikes
All are grappling with a virus that is taking hold again as the second wave rolls across the continent.
The French President has been determined not to introduce a second lockdown and damage the French economy further.
He held out, but the virus has now forced his hand.
This week he introduced a state of emergency and imposed a strict 9pm to 6am curfew in Paris and eight other metropolitan areas.
"The virus is everywhere in France," he declared.
Mr Macron had no choice but to act, and he may need to go much further yet, because the French hospital system is on the verge of being overwhelmed.
'The situation is critical'
Professor Djillali Annane, the chief of the intensive care unit at Raymond Poncaire Hospital in Paris, gave the ABC a chilling account of what is to come.
"We're really close to being saturated at the ICU, we're very close to missing beds for admitting new patients," Professor Annane declared.
Europe is being engulfed by a second wave of COVID-19 and there is a very real and frightening possibility it could be worse than the first one.
Professor Annane predicts in two months the daily death toll will be back to levels seen at the height of the first wave of the pandemic in Spring.
Then numbers routinely reached above a thousand deaths a day.
He warned doctors will soon need to decide which patients are most worthy of ICU care.
Professor Annane said at his large public hospital in the French capital up to 70 per cent of beds are now occupied by COVID-19 patients, making it difficult to manage those who are admitted with other conditions and disease.
"We are also entering flu season," he warned.
"So basically COVID-19 is going to merge with the flu season, so we won't see blue skies before next spring."
Virus growing throughout Europe
The summer reprieve from the virus, when case numbers dropped dramatically, is now over.
There is a renewed surge in coronavirus case numbers in almost every nation in Europe.
It's hardly surprising given governments were warned the rapid lifting of restrictions to allow the populous to enjoy the summer months and restart economies would lead to the virus taking hold again.
In France, as in Spain and the UK, the Government has clearly lost control, but Mr Macron does not want another national confinement.
In the UK too, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is determined not to inflict the "misery" of a second national lockdown on the people.
London is the latest city to move up a level England's three-tier alert system.
The capital is now on tier two, or "high" alert, meaning households can no longer mix inside.
The Spanish Government has ordered a 15-day state of emergency in the capital Madrid and the case numbers in the Netherlands have doubled in a week.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also announced a raft of new restrictions as Germany, the one-time leader in keeping COVID-19 at bay, entered a new phase of "exponential growth".
Shackles placed on French social lives
Mr Macron's tough new curfew will still allow the French to go to work and children to go to school, but will put the shackles on their social lives.
They'll need to be off the streets by 9pm unless they have a very good reason not to be.
Doctor Francois Braun, the head of a French emergency services union, believes hospitals are better prepared this time around, including because of improved treatments.
"We are not in front of a tornado like in March, for example, it's more like a rising tide, so we think we have time to prepare for the next few weeks," he told the ABC.
But Dr Braun said the saturation of hospital beds remains a real concern.
"We have 40 per cent of beds occupied with patients with COVID-19, but the other beds of course, are not empty too, with patients with surgery and other medical problems," he said.
Some French experts have warned 90 per cent of life support beds could be occupied by the end of this month.
Professor Annane is concerned there will not be enough medical staff to deal with the influx and those on the wards are already fatigued.
"We are indeed exhausted and we are worrying about not being able to stand up for the next month, and that is because we are very close to the burnout."
The UK is thought to be about two to three weeks behind its European neighbours in terms of the spread of the virus, although already daily cases numbers are edging towards 20,000.
Boris Johnson, like Emmanuel Macron, is determined to hold out before introducing tougher nation-wide restrictions.
But they are both in the hands of the virus and they have a duty to ensure their health systems do not become overwhelmed during the second wave.
For now, the French leader will hope the strict curfew measure will start to turn things around, although there's no guarantee.
The daily infection rate reached a peaked at 27,000 on the weekend, so halting the exponential rise in case rates will be difficult.
COVID-19 has already claimed 33,000 lives in France and for now its capital, the city of lights, will darken a little earlier in the hope that tally is not matched again.