A helicopter carrier has been sent to the French Mediterranean island of Corsica to evacuate people seriously ill from with infection from the Covis-19 coronavirus, who will be taken to hospitals in the southern mainland cities of in Marseille and Toulon.
Following the closure of all fenced parks in Paris, the authorities have now closed green spaces in central Paris and also walkways along the River Seine, citing a lack of observance of the lockdown measures aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus epidemic, while the Rivierra city of Nice has closed its celebrated seafront Promenade des Anglais amid rumours of impending curfew measures.
Deaths from the Covid-19 coronavirus in France rose by 89 over the past 24 hours to total 264, while the known number of those infected climbed to 9,134, according to official figures released on Wednesday evening, as still inadequate testing capacity for the virus was raised to a daily 2,500.
Several hundred workers at an Amazon warehouse and shipping centre near Orléans in north-central France staged a strike on Wednesday over their fears of exposure to the Covid-19 coronavirus, calling for the site's closure or for a dispensation for those staff who wished to stay at home.
An exodus from Paris of the wealthy with second homes or those with provincial families to welcome them, hoping to enjoy greener environments with which to live out the nationwide home confinement order issued to contain the spread of the coronavirus, is causing concern in some relatively unaffected regions that the fleeing Parisians are bringing the virus with them.
French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe and his finance minster Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday that the government might nationalise big companies left reeling from the fallout from the Covid-19 virus epidemic, alongside 45 billion euros in emergency measures to help firms weather the storm, on top of 300 billion euros in government loan guarantees, while the state deficit is expected to blow out to 3.9 percent of gross domestic product from a target of 2.2 percent.
A French competition wtachdog has found US tech giant Apple guilty of unfairly agreeing prices for sales of its wares in France with certain wholesalers, to the detriment of others, and fined the company 1.1 billion euros.
As of midday on Tuesday, and initially announced for 15 days although few expect it to lend before May at least, the French capital, like the rest of the country, was placed under official lockdown in an effort to contain the coronavirus epidemic, with the population confined to their homes except for only essential movement outdoors.
French interior minister Christophe Castaner on Monday evening provided further details on the nationwide lockdown of the population announced earlier by President Emmanuel Macron, adding that 100,000 police officers would be deployed to ensure the public only left their homes for reasons that should be justified by a written statement, downloaded from an official website and signed, or face a fine of up to 135 euros.
In a televised address on Monday evening French President Emmanuel Macron announced a lockdown of the population, initially for a 15-day period, restricting all but non-essential movements of people outside of their homes in an effort to contain the Covid-19 coronvitrus outbeak, while also postponing the second round of municipal elections due next weekend.
Bernard Preynat, 74, a defrocked priest convicted of assaulting at least 80 young boys between the ages of seven and 15 between 1971 and 1991, was on Monday handed a five-year jail term.
France held nationwide local elections on Sunday in the extraordinary conditions of ramped up measures to slow the accelerating coronavirus outbreak in the country. These included the shutdown of a vast number of public sites at midnight on Saturday, including shops, cafés, restaurants and entertainment venues, while the virus crisis has now made the holding of the final second round next weekend in doubt. Follow here the principal results and developments from these most unusual elections.
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