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HEALTH

France records over 500 more coronavirus deaths in 24 hours

France recorded another 541 coronavirus deaths in the country's hospitals in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities up to 10,809 on Wednesday. However, the rise in intensive care admissions continued to slow.

Published: 8 April 2020 20:33 CEST
France records over 500 more coronavirus deaths in 24 hours
Photo: AFP

The total number of coronavirus deaths included 7,632 fatalities in hospitals since March 1st.

The remaining deaths were reported in the country's elderly care homes (known as Ehpad). However far from all the Ehpad nursing homes in the country have reported their death tolls.

France's Director General of Health Jérôme Salomon said that due to a technical fault there was no daily data available from the Ehpads on Wednesday, and that the overall death toll was likely incomplete. On Tuesday he gave the death toll in nursing homes since the epidemic began as 3,237.

Salomon confirmed that a total of 7,148 coronavirus patients were in intensive care in French hospitals on Wednesday.

Of these, 108 were aged less than 30 years old.

A total of 30,375 people were receiving hospital treatment on Wednesday.
 

Wednesday's total number of intensive care patients was larger than Tuesday's (7,131) and included 482 new admissions.

“It's a considerable number,” Salomon said.

At the same time, the total number of patients in intensive care had slowed down over the past week, thanks the rising number of patients whose condition had improved.

On Wednesday the overall net increase was only 17 from the day earlier, the smallest intensive care jump recorded in recent weeks – beating the former record of Tuesday. (+59).

At the beginning of April the number of patients in intensive care was rising by several hundred each day.

“We have doubled our national intensive care capacity,” Salomon said in the evening press briefing. “We're doing everything (..), to ease pressure and support our hospitals.”

Salomon and other health experts have pinpointed intensive care rates as key to monitor the epidemic curve. 

Salomon said he hoped France would see a flattening in its curve of cases in coming days but emphasised that this “plateau is at a very high level.”

Wednesday's daily hospital death toll of 541 was smaller than than the day before (607) and Monday's (605). It was, however, larger than the 441 and 357 reported on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

Again, the health director announced some positive news, as the number of people who had completely recovered since the beginning of the epidemic had increased to 21,254. That number only included those who were admitted to the hospital, Salomon said, “not the thousands who had recovered at home.”

France has been on a national lockdown since March 17th and will likely remain so for weeks to come. The current end-date is set to April 15th, but the country's Scientific Council – the body specifically selected to advise the government on their steps to tackle the virus  – told French media this morning that the lockdown should last for several weeks longer.

Salomon said he understood that staying at home was difficult, but said respecting the confinement rules was key in combating the virus.

“It feels like you are being passive, but you are actually making a big difference,” he said.

“By staying at home, you are saving one life every eight minutes.”

France counted 82,000 confirmed coronavirus cases on Wednesday, but that was only those who had been tested and the real number was expectedly higher.
 
Since the beginning of the lockdown, the country has reduced its contagion rate from 2,5 to 1, meaning the average victim now infected less than one person –  
 
“You are our most efficient weapon against this virus,” Salomon said.

“I'm telling you, stay home.”

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SCHOOLS

Are packed lunches really banned in French schools?

School children in France are entitled to a lunchtime meal of three, or even four courses – but what if you prefer to provide meals yourself? 

Published: 22 May 2024 12:24 CEST
Are packed lunches really banned in French schools?

French school meals are, famously, pretty good – children get a three or even four-course meal of properly prepared dishes and the menu (including cheese course) is usually published in the local town newsletter so everyone can see the types of meals being served.

The concept of a proper meal at lunchtime is an important one. “The diet of a school-age child is essential for their growth, mental development and learning abilities,” the French Education Ministry says in a preamble about school meals on its website. “It must be balanced, varied and distributed throughout the day: for example 20 percent of total energy in the morning, 40 percent at midday, 10 percent at four o’clock and 30 percent in the evening.”

And it’s not all about nutrition, the social aspect of sitting together and eating a meal is also important – the ministry continues: “Mealtime is an opportunity for students to relax and communicate. It should also be a time for discovery and enjoyment.”

All schools provide meals in a canteen and most pupils take up the opportunity – however it’s also possible for pupils to go home at lunchtime so that they can eat lunch with their parents.

The idea of taking in a packed lunch (panier-repas) is much less common in France – but is it actually banned?

The rules on lunch

At écoles (up to age 11), the local authority or établissement public de coopération intercommunale (EPCI) is responsible for providing quality school meals. This generally involves meals being provided via a central kitchen, and then delivered to the school’s kitchen, where it can be kept warm, or reheated as necessary.

The system is slightly different in collèges and lycées (attended by children aged 11 and up). In those establishments, catering falls into the purview of the wider département or region – and is routinely managed directly by individual establishments, which will have catering staff on site to prepare meals. Often, meal services are outsourced to private businesses, which operate the kitchens.

There are various rules and regulations in place regarding what food is offered, and how long a child has to eat – which is, in part, why the school lunch period is so long. Children must be allowed a 30-minute period to eat their meal, from the moment they sit down with it at the table. 

Then, they’re given time to play and relax before afternoon classes start.

READ ALSO What you need to know if your child is starting school in France

At a minimum lunch must include a main course with a side dish, a dairy-based product, as well as a starter and/or a dessert. Meals must also, the government says, be composed of 50 percent sustainable quality products (including 20 percent organic).

Some local authorities go further and serve only or mostly food that is organic, locally sourced or both.

Water and bread must be freely available, but salt and condiments can only be added in preparation – no sauce bottles or salt and pepper on the tables. 

Daily menus are generally available to view on school websites and many town newspapers or newsletters also publish them.

Parents pay a fee for the school lunch, which is calculated according to income and can be free in the case of low-income families.

Packed lunch

But what if your child doesn’t like the school lunches and you don’t have time to pick them up, cook a full lunch and take them back in the afternoon everyday? The obvious solution would seem to be to send them in with a packed lunch, as is common in the UK and USA.

In theory this is possible, but only in certain circumstances and with very strict rules and caveats. 

The Ministry, in a written response to a Senator’s question in 2019, said: “The use of packed lunches [home-supplied meals] by primary school students can provide an alternative to school meals. This method of catering is authorised in particular for children with a medically established food allergy or intolerance, requiring an adapted diet.”

READ ALSO How to enrol a non-French speaking child in school in France

It added: “the preparation and use of packed lunches in schools must follow certain rules. First of all, it is important to respect the cold chain”.

The cold chain is a term applied to food handling and distribution – it’s usually used by food-preparation businesses, but in the context of a packed lunch it means that food prepared at home must be kept in appropriately cool conditions until it is ready to eat. It would be the responsibility of parents to ensure that the food is delivered to school in containers appropriate for the job (ie an insulated cool bag).

Once at the school, it is up to whoever manages the kitchen to ensure that food is properly reheated. This becomes the sticking point at which many parents’ requests to send their children to school with a packed lunch, rather than go to the canteen, or eat back at home, are refused.

The reheating concern suggests that schools are also expecting parents to prepare a proper meal – rather than just throwing some sandwiches and a cereal bar into a bag.

Unless there’s a genuine and proven health reason for your child to eat a home-prepared meal, most parents will probably find the school won’t budge on this – even in cases of a strike by kitchen staff or lunch monitors.

READ ALSO Just how much do private schools in France cost?

The Ministry’s written response explains: “[A]s this is an optional public service, the municipality can justify its refusal to admit the children concerned by objective material and financial constraints, such as the need to equip itself with additional refrigerators, or for additional supervisory staff to supervise them during lunch.”

As well as the practicalities, for some schools this is an equality issue – because of the varied fee structure for school lunches what happens in effect is that richer parents are subsidising a good quality lunchtime meal for poorer students in the class; if everyone brought in a packed lunch and therefore stopped paying the fee, the lower-income kids would miss out. 

What about allergies or other health issues?

Children with allergies or other health issues that require a particular diet must be accommodated. An individual meal plan – known as a projet d’accueil individualisé (PAI) can be set up. More details (in French) are available here, on the government’s website.

It also becomes easier for parents to provide home-produced meals in such instances. As ever, it is up to the parents to ensure any meals are appropriately packaged and transported to school.

Not all schools

Some individual schools in France do permit pupils to bring in meals from home. They must be taken to school in an appropriate cold-storage container, and they will be stored in the kitchen area until they are needed, when meals will – if necessary – be reheated.

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