191 cases of coronavirus have been reported in France.
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Un the third death in France of a person infected with the new coronavirus was confirmed on Monday by the Ministry of Health, while 61 new cases have been reported, bringing the total to 191 since its appearance on French territory. The third person to die is “an 89-year-old woman tested post-mortem at Compiègne hospital,” who “had other medical conditions,” said health executive director Jérôme Salomon.
According to corroborating sources, who had reported this death to the AFP on Monday afternoon, the octogenarian lived in Crépy-en-Valois (Oise) where the 60-year-old teacher who died last week worked. The Oise remains the most affected department, with “64 cases in total linked to chains of transmission” from this area, said Jérôme Salomon.
Out of 191 people infected since the introduction in France of this new virus which appeared in China in December, three people died, 12 are cured and 176 are hospitalized.
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The Covid-19 epidemic on Monday surpassed the death toll of 3,000 worldwide, for just over 90,000 people infected, and the level of risk linked to the new coronavirus for European Union nationals was raised to “moderate to high”. France is one of the most affected countries in Europe with Germany (157 cases confirmed Monday morning), far behind Italy, which has more than 2,000 people tested positive and 52 dead.
Measures are increasing
Faced with this situation, measures to try to curb the spread are increasing: schools closed in the homes of the disease, suspended school trips abroad, gatherings of more than 5,000 people prohibited in closed environments …
The cancellation of the Book Fair, which was to be held from March 20 to 23 at Porte de Versailles, as well as the World Tourism Fair in Paris, which was to welcome just over 100,000 visitors from March 12 to 15, were notably announced on Monday. There is “no systematic cancellation of events” but an assessment “at the local level”, said Jérôme Salomon, stressing that the government was anxious to “still keep a normal life in the territory”.
The government’s objective is to “slow down to prevent, or at least delay, the free circulation of the virus on the territory that would mark the arrival in phase 3, that is to say the epidemic proper of coronavirus in France, “Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Monday during a visit to the Pellegrin University Hospital in Bordeaux. “Today the current situation and conditions are not compatible with a right of withdrawal,” he added, explaining that “despite the emerging nature of this new virus, the state and the health services are entirely mobilized to face this evolving situation ”.
Employees of the Louvre museum voted unanimously Monday morning to exercise their right of withdrawal for the second day in a row, feeling threatened by the coronavirus epidemic.
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