Keyword: covid-19

The death from a heart attack in Marseille last week of a boy aged nine, who suffered an inflammatory condition with similarities to the blood vessel disorder known as Kawasaki disease, is suspected of having developed the symptoms from Covid-19 virus infection for which he tested positive to, as seen in more than 120 cases of young children in France, but also in other countries,

Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson. © ERIC PIERMONT / AFP

The chief executive of French pharma giant Sanofi sparked outrage this week when he declared that the US would be first in line for a vaccine his group was developing against the Covid-19 virus. In this op-ed article, Martine Orange argues the move by Sanofi reveals the immoral reality of the pharma business which, instead of serving the common good, has embarked on a profit-seeking commercial war over the coronavirus.

Comments by French pharma group Sanofi's CEO Paul Hudson that US funding of its research into a vaccine against the Covid-19 virus would make the country first to receive it were dismissed as 'unacceptable' by French junior economy minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher, while the head of Sanofi's French operations, Olivier Bogillot, said 'I don’t confirm it', adding, 'it will be available to all'. 

Three days after the lifting of total lockdown measures in France, the health ministry reported deaths from the Covid-19 virus had tumbled over the 24 hours up to Wednesday evening, at 83 against 348 the previous day, while patients in intensive care for the infection fell by 114 to 2,428, and total hospitalisations for the disease continued a downward trend at 21,071.

Crowds of mostly young people in Paris gathered together with drinks and without masks at sites beside the River Seine and the Saint-Martin canal to celebrate the end on Monday of the lockdown on public movement, prompting the capital's police prefect to ban alcohol consumption at the locations for fear of a spread of the Covid-19 virus.

Amazon’s six French warehouses, which employ around 10,000 workers on permanent and interim contracts, have been shut since April 16th after court rulings said the company could only continue to operate if it limits deliveries to a list of essential goods only and carry out an assessment of the health risks to its employees in consultation with French trades unions.

Official figures released on Monday evening reported 263 deaths in France from the Covid-19 coronavirus over the previous 24 hours, compared with 70 registered over the previous day on Sunday, with 22,284 people infected with the virus hospitalised, while the numbers of intensive care patients were reported to have fallen by 64.

A leading specialist in infectious diseases, French doctor Didier Sicard was for many years head of internal medicine at the Cochin public hospital in Paris, helped establish the Pasteur Institute’s branch in Laos, south-east Asia, and served for eight years as head of France’s national bioethics advisory committee. In this interview with Joseph Confavreux, he offers his insight into the current Covid-19 virus pandemic – a phenomenon he warned against long ago –  including the perpetuating root causes of the crisis, the action needed to avoid a recurrence, why medicine can only be effective if it encompasses a wide view of society, and how public health policy has lost sight of its fundamental missions.

Ahead of the country's lifting of lockdown on public movement on Monday, France on Saturday recorded the lowest 24-hour toll of deaths from the coronavirus epidemic since early April, with 80 fatalities, while patients infected with the disease treated in intensive care in hospitals also continued to fall, although new hospital admissions numbered 265 on Friday.

Official French health ministry figures released on Friday evening reported deaths from the Covid-19 epidemic had risen over the past 24 hours by 243, bringing the total number of fatalities in the country from the epidemic to 26,230, while the number of people being treated in hospital for the infection fell to 22,724, confirming a three-week downward trend since an April 14th peak of 32,292.

Charitable organisations traditionally providing emergency food centres report a new category of the needy under France's lockdown, and who are typically those involved in undeclared or part-time work and made redundant by the economic paralysis without any hope of finnacial support. 

In a joint press conference with his health, interior and transport ministers, French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe on Thursday outlined the practical manner in which the two-month lockdown on public movement due to the Covid-19 epridemic will be lifted on Monday, with a gradual return to activity according to the rates of infection in different regions, and which remain notably high in a large swathe of the north-east of the country, including Paris.

French President Emmanuel Macron during a televised address on April 13th 2020. © Hans Lucas via AFP

In face of the Covid-19 virus crisis, French President Emmanuel Macron has failed in his mission, presiding over disorder, a sore lack of means to fight the epidemic and a ‘communications’ campaign of lies, argues Mediapart publishing editor and co-founder Edwy Plenel. In this op-ed article, he urges the dismissal of an antiquated presidential system and the establishment of a truly democratic republic in France.

A fishmonger treated for pneumonia symptoms in a Paris suburban hospital in late December 2019 has been found to have in fact been suffering from Covid-19 virus infection, according to a French medical study, suggesting the virus was circulating well before the first officially announced cases in France on January 24th.

After several days of decline, the toll of deaths of people in French hospitals and care homes attributed to the Covid-19 virus reached 25,201 according to official figures released on Monday evening, an increase of 306 over the past 24 hours, but patients in intensive care with the disease had fallen to 3,696, the lowest since March 26th.