Deaths in nursing homes add to French death toll

PARIS • The coronavirus death toll in France has surged to nearly 5,400, the fourth highest in the world, after the health ministry began including nursing home fatalities in its data.

The pandemic had claimed the lives of 4,503 patients in hospitals by Thursday, up 12 per cent on the previous day's 4,032, said Mr Jerome Salomon, head of the health authority.

A provisional tally showed the coronavirus had killed a further 884 people in nursing homes and other care facilities, he added. This makes for a total of 5,387 lives lost - an increase of 1,355 over Wednesday's cumulative total - although data has not yet been collected from all of the country's 7,400 nursing homes.

France has reported nearly 60,000 cases of the coronavirus so far. "We are in France confronting an exceptional epidemic with an unprecedented impact on public health," Mr Salomon told a news conference.

The country's broad lockdown is likely to be extended beyond April 15, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Thursday, extending a confinement order to try and deal with the crisis that began on March 17.

With Europe accounting for more than half of coronavirus cases around the world, France and Britain were also struggling to prop up health services under massive strain.

The French government was racing to try to ensure it can produce or procure itself certain medications needed to treat coronavirus patients as stocks were running low, Mr Philippe told TF1 TV, echoing concerns across Europe as the pandemic places a huge strain on hospitals in Italy, Spain and elsewhere.

Britain's Prince Charles opened a new hospital in London yesterday, erected to provide thousands of extra beds for coronavirus patients and set up in nine days in a huge conference centre. The Nightingale Hospital, which will initially provide up to 500 beds equipped with ventilators and oxygen, will eventually be able to treat about 4,000 patients.

Spain yesterday reported the first decline in new coronavirus deaths in four days, suggesting its strict confinement measures may be helping to bring the outbreak under control.

Total deaths rose by 932 to 10,935 in the past 24 hours, a smaller gain than Thursday's 950, the health ministry's data showed. The number of confirmed cases also increased by less than the previous day, with 7,472 new infections taking the total to 117,710.

Spanish media, citing sources, reported yesterday that the current four-week lockdown may be extended for another two weeks beyond April 11.

Italy's civil protection chief said the country's lockdown would likely continue beyond the start of May. Italy, which leads the world in fatalities, has reported almost 14,000 deaths with over 115,000 infections.

BLOOMBERG, REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on April 04, 2020, with the headline Deaths in nursing homes add to French death toll. Subscribe