French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday announced an extension of income support for artists and workers in the culture sector who have been badly hit by the almost two-month lockdown on public movement and the future ban on mass gatherings likely to continue well into the summer, while cancelled cinema and TV shoots are to benefit from a compensation fund.
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.
French officials have announced that Foreign Legion member Kévin Clement, 21, was killed in a firefight combat against armed groups in Mali’s Menaka region, bringing the total of fatalities among French forces engaged against jihadist forces in the north-west African country since 2013 to 43.
Air France should become "the most environmentally respectful airline" as a condition to a 7-billion-euro state loan in face of lost business due to the Covid-19 virus epidemic said French economy minister Bruno Le Maire, after the aide package was approved by the European Commission.
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.
Four Iranian nationals were presented before French magistrates on Monday accused of impersonating police officers to search victims on the pretext of checking their movements under the current lockdown measures in France, when they allegedly stole cash and valuables estimated to be worth around 25,000 euros.
The mayor of Paris and her colleagues from towns around the capital have called upon the French government to delay the re-opening of schools, planned to begin gradually with the lifting of lockdown measures planned for May 11th, because of the lack of practical and legal preparedness for the return of classes.
