France toll tops 25,000 as PM defends post-lockdown plan
05 May, 2020
France on Monday reached the grim milestone of over 25,000 coronavirus deaths as its prime minister defended the government's arrange for easing a lockdown when confronted with bitter criticism.
The French are due to emerge on, may 11 from a lockdown that started out in mid-March to combat the virus, with some schools reopening in a technique different to other European countries.
Signs have grown that the epidemic is slowing in France although a spike in the daily death toll Monday to 306 -- more than double the day earlier -- propelled its total number of dead past 25,000 to 25,201.
But based on the latest health ministry figures, the more positive recent trends continued, with 123 fewer patients experiencing the coronavirus in intensive care to generate a total of 3,696 acquiring such urgent treatment.
Nationwide, there have been also 267 fewer patients in hospital for coronavirus treatment, making a complete of 25,548, it added.
France is currently the fifth country to have recorded over 25,000 coronavirus deaths after Britain, Italy, Spain and the United States.
'Economic life must resume'
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe rejected concerns that the federal government is moving too fast especially by reopening schools, a move that puts France out of step with various other EU countries.
"This confinement was essential to meet the emergency, but its social and financial cost is colossal," he told the Senate.
"We're at a decisive moment, we can not stay in confinement," he said. "Economic life must resume imperatively and quickly."
The government is impatient to relaunch activity, already forecasting that the economy will contract eight percent this season in its worst postwar performance.
But on Sunday, more than 300 mayors from the higher Paris region, including Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, penned an open letter to President Emmanuel Macron urging him to delay school returns, saying they want additional time for the vast reorganization of classrooms and daily routines.
Among the myriad new measures is a limit of just 15 students per class, which could require teachers to ensure distance learning for those struggling to come to school.
"Preparations for the finish of the lockdown are being imposed at a forced march, even though we still lack the required information," the mayors wrote.
'Catastrophe for vulnerable'
In an indicator that the national political consensus that emerged through the epidemic is crumbling, the Senate upper house, where in fact the right-wing opposition is the biggest force, voted Monday against endorsing the government's plan.
The vote had mainly symbolic weight since it cannot halt the measures for easing the lockdown decreed by the federal government.
Philippe said school closures have been a "catastrophe for the most vulnerable children and adolescents", adding that academic failure and dropouts risked learning to be a "time bomb".
Speaking at the Elysee Palace, Macron said final information on the post-lockdown plan would be unveiled Thursday, adding that he "understood all of the worries".
Lifting the lockdown is "an indispensable step" but "it isn't a return to normal," he said.
Striking a downbeat note, he said "we should figure out how to live with this virus" until a trusted treatment or vaccine is produced.
The government was also facing fresh criticism over the cost and availability of face masks, which officially continued sale to the general public Monday.
The top of the right-wing Senate faction, Bruno Retailleau, warned that "no-one can say that next week there will be enough masks to safeguard all of the French."
Philippe rejected claims by health personnel who have accused retailers of creating up stocks, even while many hospitals remain scrambling to safe enough to handle the wave of COVID-19 cases.
"There have been never any hidden stocks: Huge orders were placed, and it requires a certain amount of time before they are often made available," he said.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
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