Jean-Jacques Razafindranazy, a 68-year-old doctor who treated patients for coronavirus infection at a hospital in Compiègne, north of Paris, has himself died from the virus his family has announced, describing him as 'a hero' who was retired but had returned to work to help overstretched colleagues.
Official French figures released on Sunday evening indicated deaths so far in the country from Covid-19 coronavirus infection had risen to a total of 674, up by 112 since Saturday, while there were 16,018 cases of people tested positive for the virus.
The French parliament on Sunday approved the introduction of emergency legislation that gives the government special powers including restriction of people’s freedom of movement and to rule by decree to requisition certain goods and services as part of the effort to contain the Covid-19 coronavirus epidemic.
Confined to his apartment by the lockdown measures to contain the Covid-19 virus epidemic, Elisha Nochomovitz completed the distance of a marathon by running backwards and forwards about 6,000 times on his seven-metre-long balcony in Toulouse, southern France, over a period of six hours and 48 minutes.
Antoine Vieillard-Baron, head of the surgical and medical intensive care unit of the Ambroise Paré hospital in Paris said on Friday that urgent measures were underway to increase available beds for patients seriously ill from Covid-19 coronavirus infection ahead of an expected peak of the epidemic in early April.
The total number of recorded deaths from the Covid-19 coronavirus in France had risen to 450 by Friday evening, according a health official, while nearly 1,300 people were receiving intensive care and another 12,612 people were found to be carrying the infection.
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.
