Emmanuel Macron and the Minister of Health Olivier Véran at La Pitie-Salpetriere hospital, February 27, 2020, after the death of a patient affected by the coronavirus. – Stephane Lemouton-POOL / SIPA
Emmanuel Macron said it on Thursday, “the epidemic is coming.” The balance sheet of coronavirus is accelerating in France, with a total of 38 confirmed cases announced Thursday evening against 18 the day before. This figure could “change” in the coming hours, warns the Ministry of Health. With twelve new linked cases in the Oise, a grouping of four cases in Haute-Savoie, France is approaching an “Italian” situation with chains of transmission of the new virus on its territory, even if “very few cases remain without explanation”, have insisted the health authorities.
“We have before us a crisis, an epidemic that is coming … We will have to face it at best, with life going on. We know that we are only at the beginning, “warned Emmanuel Macron on Thursday morning, visiting the Parisian hospital of La-Pitié-Salpêtrière, where a patient died of coronavirus on Wednesday, before flying off for a summit Franco-Italian in Naples. “There is going to be a bit of an Italian situation” with “indigenous chains of transmission,” said the president during the visit, Professor Eric Caumes, head of the Infectious and Tropical Diseases department. The neighbor across the Alps is the country most affected in Europe by the virus that appeared in December in China, with 650 positive cases and 17 deaths recorded.
Two homes in Oise and Haute-Savoie
France, which has had no new cases since February 15, registered five between Tuesday and Wednesday. Among them, two residents of the Oise with no history of travel to a risk zone, one of whom died, raised fears of the appearance of unexplained chains of transmission, a sign of a new stage in the progression of the coronavirus in France.
The investigations carried out in emergency to trace their course made it possible to highlight 12 new cases among their professional or family contacts, “which seem linked between them by a chain of contamination”, announced Thursday the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.
In addition, in Haute-Savoie, after the detection of a 64-year-old Frenchman returning from Lombardy and then his wife, their daughter and a friend were in turn tested positive and hospitalized. Two people hospitalized in serious condition “were part of a group of 20 people who went to Egypt on an organized trip,” added the minister.
Three other new cases have been detected thanks to the new instruction to carry out a screening test on people hospitalized with unexplained signs of serious respiratory infection, even if they have not traveled to a risk zone or had close contact with a confirmed case.
“Few new cases without explanation”
“Several investigations are still in progress likely to change this assessment by tomorrow evening,” warned Olivier Véran. At this stage, “very few cases remain unexplained,” said the Director General of Health Jérôme Salomon, however.
“The epidemic is likely” but “there is no reason to be afraid or to be negligent”, underlined in the early afternoon Edouard Philippe after having received the leaders of parties represented in the Parliament, the presidents of parliamentary groups and the presidents of assemblies.
Olivier Véran will meet Friday, with the Minister of Labor Muriel Pénicaud, union and employer organizations “to take stock” of the coronavirus and the “ measures to be taken in companies “.
The opposition brought together by Edouard Philippe has shown “solidarity” with the government that “does the job”, except Marine Le Pen who again pointed out “inconsistencies” in the management of the crisis and asked that France put in place border “restrictions”.
–
