Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

COVID-19

Covid-19 death toll in France passes 60,000 mark

The number of deaths in France caused by the Covid-19 virus coronavirus topped 60,000 on Friday, according to the public health agency.

Published: 18 December 2020 20:03 CET

Covid-19 death toll in France passes 60,000 mark

Health authorities in France have voiced concern about a “worrying” resurgence in the virus ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays.

“We are really seeing an increase in the spread of the virus,” said Sophie Vaux, an epidemiologist at the health agency.

France registered another 264 Covid-19 deaths on Friday bringing the total of coronavirus-related deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to 60, 229.

France eased a nationwide lockdown on Tuesday December 15th but tight restrictions remain in place including a nighttime curfew from 8pm.

While people are free to travel around the country during the Christmas holiday, bars and restaurants will remain closed until at least January along with cinemas and theatres.

France saw a steep drop in the number of daily Covid-19 cases during lockdown but in recent days the number of daily infections have begun to rise once again.

On Friday France registered 15, 674 new infections compared to over 18, 000 on Thursday. The daily average had dropped to just over 10,000 at the start of December.

More to follow..

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

France’s Covid-19 app to be 'put to sleep'

Covid-19 screening in France reaches an important milestone on Friday, June 30th, 2023 – when the TousAntiCovid app is officially ‘put to sleep’.

The app, which was launched in June 2020 as France came out of its first lockdown of the pandemic and has undergone a number of iterations, including as a delivery device for the health pass, will be switched off.

For most people, this anniversary will pass without mention. Few people have consulted the app in recent months, and it has sat dormant on many smartphones since France’s Covid-19 health pass requirement was suspended in March 2022.

Meanwhile, the Système d’Informations de DEPistage (SI-DEP) interface – which has been informing people about their test results since the Spring of 2020 – is also being shut down on June 30th, as per legal requirements.

The SI-DEP shutdown means that it will also be impossible to retrieve Covid test certificates issued before June 30th, should the need arise. All data held by the database will be “destroyed”, officials have said.

It has handled more than 320 million antigen and PCR tests since it was introduced.

This does not mean that testing for Covid-19 has stopped, or is now unnecessary. As reported recently, more than 1,000 deaths a week in Europe are still caused by the virus.

The shutdown of the national information system does not mean that people in France cannot still book an appointment for an antigen test at a pharmacy, or a PCR test at a laboratory. But the number of people going for testing is declining rapidly. In recent days, according to Le Parisien, just 15,000 people in France took a Covid test – the lowest number, it said, since the pandemic started.

Reimbursement rules for testing changed on March 1st, with only certain categories of people – minors, those aged 65 and over, or immunosuppressed patients – covered for the entire cost of testing.

From Friday, only PCR test results will be transmitted to authorities for data purposes, meaning pharmacists that only offer antigen testing will be locked out of the online interface to record test results.

The reason for the shift in priorities is to maintain “minimal epidemiological surveillance”, the Ministry of Health has reportedly told scientists.

As a result test certificates, showing a positive or negative result, will no longer be issued from July 1st. Since February 1st, anyone taking a test has had to give consent to share their data in order to obtain a certificate.

Url copied to clipboard!