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Daily cases of coronavirus in France have exceeded 10,000 for the first time and the prime minister has ruled out a second lockdown.
The country reported 10,561 new infections on Saturday, the highest daily number in France since large-scale tests were launched.
The milestone came a day after Prime Minister Jean Castex, who recently had to isolate himself after testing two negative tests for the virus, refused to announce major new restrictions despite a ‘clear worsening’ in the country’s outbreak. .
“We have to be successful in living with this virus, without going back to the idea of a generalized lockdown,” Castex said.
Daily cases of coronavirus in France have exceeded 10,000 for the first time and the prime minister has ruled out a second lockdown.
The fears emerged briefly after the prime minister spent part of last weekend with Tour de France boss Christian Prudhomme, who tested positive for Covid-19.
It comes after the country announced Thursday that it will pay parents to stay home if schools are forced to close due to an increase in coronavirus cases.
Paris revealed yesterday that it will pay 84 percent of a parent’s salary in each household with a child under the age of 16 if its school is forced to close due to the virus.
The announcement comes after infection groups have sprung up across the country since schools reopened on September 1. The groups have already led to the closure of 34 schools and the cancellation of 500 separate classes.
The milestone came a day after Prime Minister Jean Castex (pictured), who recently had to isolate himself after testing two negative for the virus, refused to announce major new restrictions despite a ‘clear worsening’ in the outbreak of the country.
Payments will be delayed until September 1, The Times reports, adding that the French government has also announced an extension of its licensing plan for companies in difficulty.
The series of measures comes after French health authorities reported 9,843 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, surpassing by almost 900 the previous record of 8,975, set six days earlier.
After hitting a low of 4,530 on August 28, the number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 is trending up again.
However, hospitalizations for the disease are still more than six times lower than the April 14 peak of 32,292 and the number of ICU patients is well below the April 8 record of 7,148.
Doctors and nurses in protective equipment treat a patient suffering from coronavirus disease in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Hopital Europeen hospital in Marseille, France.
The rise in infections has mainly affected young people who are less likely to develop complications from the virus. So far there has been less tension in French hospitals, which were almost overwhelmed at the end of March.
The hospital figures are still a long way from the peaks reached in April, but they create a new strain on the hospital system that could lead authorities to take action.
France’s decision to subject the country to one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe between March 17 and May 11 was dictated by the need to prevent the hospital system from being overwhelmed.
France’s top scientific adviser on the virus, Dr. Jean-Francois Delfraissy, said low hospitalization and death rates were giving the French people a false sense of security.
“France is now at a worrying level that is not far behind Spain, lagging perhaps two weeks, and much more severe than Italy,” said Dr. Delfraissy.
According to The Times, Macron added that the lockdown measures would be implemented regionally, not nationally.
France has the seventh highest death toll from COVID-19 in the world.
Another country that reached a daily milestone on Saturday was the United Arab Emirates, which recorded more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases on Saturday for the first time.
In Spain, which this week became the first country in the EU to pass half a million infections, an infection was detected among the companions of Princess Leonor.
The 14-year-old heir to the Spanish throne, who only returned to school in Madrid on Wednesday, will now have to serve a two-week quarantine.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s uncle, businessman Mohamad Makhlouf, died on Saturday from Covid-19, two sources close to him told AFP.
And in Latin America, which this week surpassed the milestone of eight million virus cases, Brazil, the most affected, registered more than 131,000 deaths from Covid-19 as of Saturday, the second highest in the world behind the United States.
Meanwhile, Latvia reinstated a mandatory 14-day quarantine for arrivals from neighboring Estonia due to an increase in cases there.
