In the region, some 450 in every 100,000 people are testing positive and the rate is climbing.
Cambrai hospital originally only had six beds in intensive care, and this has since increased to 22, and all of them are occupied by a COVID-19 patient.
France could hit the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in seven to 10 days with the new restrictive measures announced on Wednesday (March 31) by French President Emmanuel Macron, Health Minister Olivier Veran told France Inter radio.
Macron ordered France into its third national lockdown and said schools would close for three weeks as he sought to push back the third wave of COVID-19 infections that threatens to overwhelm hospitals.
Daily new COVID-19 infections in France have doubled since February to average nearly 40,000. The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care breached 5,000 this week, exceeding the peak hit during the six-week second lockdown enforced late last year.