France and the coronavirus: "The next few days will be particularly difficult", warns the director of health

France and the coronavirus: "The next few days will be particularly difficult", warns the director of health

The country has registered 231 additional deaths and 311 new resuscitation patients in the past 24 hours.

wait. While the scientific council on Covid-19 estimated that the containment set up on March 17 could last "probably at least six weeks", the government has not yet taken up this recommendation. The authorities' decision, however, hardly seems to be in doubt. On Wednesday March 25, spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye announced that the extension will be decided "in the coming days".

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1,331 hospital deaths, fivefold in one week
The epidemic has claimed the lives of 1,331 people, including 231 between Tuesday and Wednesday, which is five times the number of deaths in a week, said Director General of Health Jérôme Salomon. At least 2,827 patients were in intensive care, including 311 new patients in serious condition within 24 hours. A total of 11,539 patients are hospitalized, according to Mr. Salomon.

A third are under the age of 60 and 59% are between 60 and 80 years old.
86% of deaths that have been reported in hospitals are over 70 years of age.
3,900 people left the hospital cured.
"The crisis will be long, the next few days will be particularly difficult," warns the director general of health, recalling that France is facing an "unprecedented and very critical situation. (…) We have a rapidly expanding national epidemic. " He stressed a "major tension" in Ile-de-France, which has become "the most critical situation".

“The caregivers are fighting tirelessly, they deserve our admiration and our tributes. We will have individual dramas, we will have collective dramas, families bereaved in numbers. We will have to face as a whole a new and very critical situation. "

Changes to the labor code faced with a crisis that will be "more and more an economic and social shock"
"It is a long effort which we will all face together", assured, Wednesday, March 25, the Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, after a council of ministers during which 25 ordinances, a record under the 5th Republic, were adopted as part of the state of health emergency. "We are only at the beginning of the crisis" which will be "more and more an economic shock, a social shock", he warned before detailing the content of the orders, intended to mitigate "the serious economic damage and social issues that containment inevitably causes ”which started eight days ago. What the government has announced:
compensation for partial unemployment, which compensates an employee up to 70% of gross salary and 84% of net salary, with a State contribution up to the minimum wage. 37,000 companies had already applied for this scheme, half of which have fewer than 10 employees.

3. Orders dedicated to "protecting the most vulnerable". Social rights (RSA, disabled adult allowance, rights of jobseekers) will be "preserved and pursued throughout the confinement period".

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4. Temporary adjustment of labor law "to allow the organization of a real war economy in vital sectors and under conditions". This means that "companies will be able to derogate temporarily and with subsequent compensation from the maximum working hours and the weekly and Sunday rest rules," according to Philippe.

5. Exceptional measures for the justice system, some of which should release between 5,000 and 6,000 detainees from French prisons.

6. The priority given to caregivers, "whether it is protective equipment, means of transport for the sick, temporary accommodation or funding". "This is the priority of government priorities. "

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