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FRANCE SEEN TO HIT 100,000 COVID-19 DEATHS
- By The Financial District
- Apr 16, 2021
- 2 min read
France officially recorded Europe's first COVID-19 death on February 14, 2020, when an 80-year-old Chinese tourist died in hospital after three weeks in intensive care. Twelve days later, the death of the first French national, a 60-year-old man, was announced.
By the end of spring, and despite a strict lockdown imposed in mid-March, the country had recorded nearly 30,000 deaths.
But the second wave proved even more violent in France and was compounded earlier this year by the emergence of more transmissible variants. Since October, more than 65,000 deaths have been attributed to the virus.
A surge in cases attributed to the British variant prompted President Emmanuel Macron to announce a new hybrid lockdown on March 31.
Currently, all non-essential shops across the country are closed, inter-region travel is restricted and a nationwide nighttime curfew kicks in at 19:00.
Ten days into the third lockdown, new cases reached over 43,500 on Wednesday and the country retains the fourth-highest 14-day incidence rate in the EU/EEA with nearly 802 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
Government spokesman Gabriel Attal told reporters on Wednesday following a Cabinet meeting that "the third wave is unfortunately not yet behind us."
"Although some signals are encouraging and show that the braking measures are working, it is still too early to see the full effectiveness of these measures at the national level. I add that the peak of hospitalizations has not been reached yet. This means that we still have very difficult days ahead of us in hospitals and intensive care units," he went on.
More than 13,600 people were hospitalized due to COVID-19 across France in the past week, including over 3,000 in intensive care units.
The government has been heavily criticized for its response to the pandemic, especially over the past few months as it delayed the implementation of the lockdown against scientific advice and as neighboring countries were tightening the screws at home.
