4, April 2020
French hospitals record deadliest day with 588 coronavirus deaths 0
French hospitals recorded their highest death toll in 24 hours with 588 new fatalities from coronavirus, the country’s chief medical adviser told a press conference on Friday, as the total toll including retirement homes rose to more than 6,500.
France’s Director General of Health, Jérôme Salomon, announced the figures during a daily press conference, saying a total of 5,091 people had died in French hospitals since the start of the crisis.
Giving a separate tally for nursing homes, Salomon said that a provisional count showed that at least 1,416 people had died at care homes for the elderly after contracting the virus.
French officials started releasing figures for care homes only yesterday. The huge rise in those numbers makes for a total of 6,507 lives lost to coronavirus in France, so far.
Salomon said that the number of known infections rose nationwide to 64,338 from 59,105 on Thursday. The number of patients requiring life support rose to 6,662 from 6,399.
In a televised interview on Thursday night, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe urged the French to respect the lockdown measures imposed since March 17, to ensure a levelling off of new cases of the virus.
“This is the only way for the health service to overcome the peak” of the virus, he said.
Philippe conceded that the nationwide lockdown “would probably be extended” beyond the current deadline of April 15.
With the traditional spring break approaching, Philippe sternly warned the French against considering holidays away, saying there would be checks and fines for those who violated the rules.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)
4, April 2020
Migrant farmworkers in Italy working with no protection amid Covid-19 outbreak 0
As the coronavirus crisis enters its sixth week in Italy, Italian farmworkers’ labor union FLAI-CGIL has sounded the alarm over the high number of migrants working in the fields without adequate protective measures.
Last month, in an attempt to contain the virus outbreak, the government ordered the closure of all non-essential businesses also introducing stiff restrictions on activities considered essential.
Social distancing and the use of masks, gloves and disinfectant have been made compulsory in factories, supermarkets and public offices still operating.
However, FLAI-CGIL has warned that as many as 250,000 legally-employed migrants and many more undocumented ones working for little pay in the agriculture sector are at risk of being infected.
The mayor of Bergamo, one of the worst affected cities from Covid-19 in northern Italy, has recently called on the government to speed up the issuing of the yearly decree that regularizes non-EU migrant workers.
The national Farmers’ Association Coldiretti estimates that a quarter of the food produced in Italy relies on the hands of more than 370,000 seasonal workers coming from abroad every year. With just a few days to go before the picking of fruit and vegetables, the situation is becoming alarming.
Unions believe tens of thousands of undocumented migrants could be granted a temporary permit thanks to a clause included in a security decree aimed at curbing migrant flows issued by previous government’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.
Source: Presstv