Keyword: covid-19

A joint investigation by Mediapart and The Guardian has revealed that mask maker Valmy and its parent company Paris-based Segetex are now the subject of a judicial investigation in France over allegedly breaking an official decree by the French state to requisition face masks.

Prime minister Jean Castex said jobs would be the “absolute priority” in the coming months and money will be pumped into creating jobs for young people, among those worst hit by the Covid crisis.

He said a 100-billion-euro economic recovery package, to be rolled out on Friday, will include 40 billion euros in support for domestic industry and services.

Emergency services attend to a suspected case of Covid-19 infection at a carehome in Crépy-en-Valois on March 2nd. © FRANCOIS NASCIMBENI / AFP

In France, as in other European countries emerging from the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the past management of the now subsiding crisis is under scrutiny, and many questions are being asked as to how the terrible toll of the virus might have been lessened by more appropriate action early on. In this report, Caroline Coq-Chodorge and Lise Barnéoud trace the chronology of events, interview those doctors involved on the frontline and reveal confidential documents from the French healthcare administration that show how the spread of the epidemic in France was out of control as of March 1st.

New prime minister Jean Castex said the main focus was on indoor spaces; currently face masks are mandatory on public transport.

A report released last week by France’s national statistics institute show that the year-on-year rise in country’s mortality rate during the height of the Covid-19 virus epidemic was proportionately more than twice as high among inhabitants born abroad, and notably those from sub-Saharan Africa and also Asia, than for the population born in France. While the data paints an incomplete picture, it convincingly illustrates, as seen in studies in other European countries and in the US, that among populations it has been ethnic minorities which have been the most at risk from the coronavirus.    

Newly appointed French Prime Minister Jean Castex said his government is preparing for a second wave of the Covid-19 epidemic, but ruled out a repeat of the near-total lockdown on public movement which was applied at a national level between March and May, and instead locking down specific areas of any resurgence, because 'the economic and human consequences from a total lockdown are disastrous'. 

The self-financed central-Paris museum dedicated to the works of Auguste Rodin, hit hard by almost four months of closure due to the Covid-19 virus epidemic, is seeking financial relief through an allowance established by the sculptor himself that it may sell up to 12 replicas of select works, cast in bronze, every year.

The French parliament has approved a move to help the press sector amid the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 virus pandemic, which will see first-time subscribers to news publications offered a tax credit.

France held the first round of voting three months ago as coronavirus took hold - a decision President Emmanuel Macron was widely criticised for.

Since its launch, 68 people have informed the platform they had been infected and only 14 users were alerted that they were now at risk because of their contacts with these people, digital affairs minister Cedric O said.

Casinos will  welcome gamblers from Monday while stadiums and racetracks will reopen on July 11, subject to a limit of 5,000 people, the government announced late on Friday.

The number of new confirmed cases of the disease in France was only up 152, the lowest increase in 14 days, at 157,372.

The four countries, grouped together in an 'Inclusive Vaccines Alliance', struck a deal this weekend with pharma group AstraZeneca to receive a Covid-19 virus vaccine under development by researchers at Oxford university in Britain, and which it is hoped will be available at the end of the year.

The numbers of new Covid-19 cases have continued to drop since most of France reopened for business last month – while maintaining physical distancing and protection measures – with the number of additional deaths down to its lowest figure since March.