New quarantine measures on people arriving in the UK, who are now required to confine themselves over a 14-day period as a precaution against them otherwise transmitting the Covid-19 virus, will not apply to arrivals from France in a decision announced after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson discussed the issue by phone with French President Emmanuel Macron.
After two months of a general confinement of the population, France lifted the lockdown on public movement on Monday, allowing businesses and shops to re-open and free movement within a 100-kilometre radius of people's homes, but in the Paris region, where the number of Covid-19 cases remain high - if steadily fewer - employers are encouraged to keep staff working from home where possible.
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.
Cécile Rol-Tanguy, who joined the WWII French Resistance movement against German occupation and who along with her husband Henri became a prominen tmember, died on Friday at the age of 101 at her home in central France, just as Europe commemorated the 75th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi forces.
A foundation headed by former French president François Hollande awarded a grant for the development of a mobile phone app for women to seek emergency help when victims of violence, now available in several countries, as the numbers of complaints of domestic abuse have soared since the start of the home-confinement 'lockdown' measures in France due to the Covid-19 virus.
A German journalist with the WDR television network has accused former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, 94, of fondling her buttocks during an interview which his spokesman said he cannot remember.
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.
France's information privacy watchdog CNILL has expressed concerns that the Paris metro network has begun using software on CCTV images to monitor the wearing of face masks by passengers, which will be mandatory as France lifts its lockdown measures on Monday, while the private company leading the project insists no personal data is provided to the authorities.
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.
