France has reported its darkest day yet with a record 499 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours, taking the country’s total death toll to 3,523.
This marks the biggest jump in deaths since the start of the pandemic. France has a total of 52,128 cases of COVID-19, according to official figures.
There are now 22,757 people hospitalised in France with COVID-19, with 5,565 of them in intensive care, health official Jerome Salomon told reporters in his daily update.
The French death toll includes only those who died in hospital and not those who died at home or in old people’s homes.
A man walks his dogs down the stairs of the Sacre Coeur basilica in the touristic district of Montmartre in Paris on March 31
woman walks past a mailbox with a placard reading ‘this mailbox is not available until new order’ in Paris, on March 31. France has entered its 5th day of a strict lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 infection
French President Emmanuel Macron gives a speech at the end of a visit to the Kolmi-Hopen protective face masks factory in Saint-Barthelemy-d’Anjou near Angers, central France on Tuesday
France is rushing to produce millions of face masks and thousands of ventilators as reliance on imports to fight the coronavirus has exposed the country’s need for ‘independence’ in producing vital medical equipment, President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday.
‘We have to rebuild our national and European sovereignty,’ Macron said as he visited a surgical mask factory in Saint-Barthelemy-d’Anjou, near Angers in western France, where he donned a mask, coveralls and a plastic hairnet to tour the facility.
Macron promised ‘full independence’ by the end of the year in the production of protective face masks for France, which like most other countries was woefully understocked when the epidemic struck.
France is rushing to produce millions of face masks and thousands of ventilators as reliance on imports to fight the coronavirus has exposed the country’s need for ‘independence’ in producing vital medical equipment, President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday
French President Emmanuel Macron washes his hands with hydro alcoholic sanitizer after a visit to the Kolmi-Hopen protective face masks factory
With some 40 million masks required per week for frontline medical staff, the government had placed orders for over a billion masks to be delivered in the coming weeks, mainly from China.
In the meantime, local production is being ramped up, with capacity to reach 10 million masks per week by the end of next month, compared to 3.3 million per week before the crisis struck.
The number could rise to 15 million per week with the aid of several companies that have volunteered contributions.
A woman wearing a protective face mask walks past the closed cabaret Moulin Rouge in the Pigalle district of Paris on March 31
In terms of the urgent need for ventilators to help the most serious COVID-19 cases, Macron announced that 10,000 would be produced by a consortium of companies at two factories in France.
Of these, 4,500 will be delivered during the last two weeks of April, and the rest before mid-May.
France has entered its 5th day of a strict lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 infection, caused by the novel coronavirus.
Italy sees near-identical number of coronavirus infections and deaths as yesterday, as hopes remain that the country has flattened the curve
By James Wood for MailOnline
Italy today saw a near-identical number of coronavirus infections and deaths for a second day – as hopes remain the country is past the worst of the virus.
The death toll climbed by 837 to 12,428, the Civil Protection Agency said, with the daily tally rising, albeit slightly, for a second day running.
The number of new cases was broadly steady, growing by 4,053 against 4,050 yesterday, and bringing total infections since the outbreak came to light on February 21 to 105,792.
Today’s figures show a slight decline in the rate of infections and deaths from the virus indicating the country is starting to recover from the worst of the outbreak.
Italy has registered more deaths than anywhere else in the world and accounts for more than a third of all global fatalities from the virus but it appears its strict lockdown measures may now be starting to work.
Some 5,217 new cases were registered on Sunday and 5,974 on Saturday, suggesting the growth curve of new infections is flattening.
The number of new cases was broadly steady, growing by 4,053 against 4,050 yesterday, and bringing total infections since the outbreak came to light on February 21 to 105,792
The death toll climbed by 837 to 12,428, the Civil Protection Agency said, with the daily tally rising, albeit slightly, for a second day running
Personal healthcare with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) transport infected Coronavirus (COVID-19) patients at the Verduno Hospital in Turn, Italy today
A worker sanitizes the staircase of altar of the fatherland (Altare della Patria) in Rome today during the coronavirus emergency
The daily tally of deaths in Lombardy, the worst-affected region, declined sharply, and new infections were also down for at least the third day running, suggesting the situation is improving there faster than elsewhere in the country.
In neighbouring Piedmont, on the other hand, the daily death toll of 105 was up sharply from the day before.
Of those originally infected nationwide, 15,729 had fully recovered on Tuesday, compared to 14,620 the day before. There were 4,023 people in intensive care, up from a previous 3,981.
Italy has registered more deaths than anywhere else in the world and accounts for around 30 per cent of all global fatalities from the virus.
Italy’s largest daily toll from the five-week-old epidemic was registered on Friday, when 919 people died. There were 889 deaths on Saturday, 756 on Sunday and 812 on Monday.
It comes as the head of Italy’s national institutes of health says the country has hit the ‘plateau’ in its coronavirus infection rate, three weeks into a national lockdown, and should start to see a decline in new cases.
Employees of a private company prepare to spray disinfectant in a building in Rome today
A Carabinieri officers checks a driver’s documents during a control in Rome, Italy today
Dr. Silvio Brusaferro said today that it would be folly to relax Italy’s productivity shutdown and stay-at-home restrictions now, even though the rate of new virus infections is slowing.
But he said, ‘The curve suggests we are at the plateau. We have to confirm it, because arriving at the plateau doesn’t mean we have conquered the peak and we’re done. It means now we should start to see the decline if we continue to place maximum attention on what we do every day.’
Brusaferro confirmed that Italy’s R0, the average number of people who will get infected from one contagious person, is nearing one, down from estimates as high as two or three. Officials are aiming to get the R0 under one to rein in the epidemic.
In the absence of a virus vaccine that would bring that rate closer to zero, Brusaferro said governments around the world will have to come up with a mixture of measures to keep the infection curve down while gradually allowing some activity to restart.
It comes as the country’s former Prime Minister warned Italy must reopen its schools at the start of May or risk causing mass protests and riots.
Matteo Renzi, leader of the Italia Viva party who led the country from 2014 to 2016, called for factories to be reopened by Easter and for millions of children to return to classrooms on May 4 to ease the pressure on hard-hit families and the economy.
‘Italy cannot hibernate for another month because this is how the social revolt ignites,’ he said. ‘The balconies will soon turn into pitchforks; the songs of hope, into desperate protests.’
But health experts poured cold water on his idea, insisting that it is still too early to talk about relaxing draconian restrictions that has seen all-but essential businesses shuttered and people banned from leaving the house.
Italian and EU flags flly at half-mast in tribute to the Covid-19 victims, at Palazzo Chigi, in Rome today
Renzi spoke out on Saturday, as it became clear that Italy’s rate of new coronavirus cases had begun falling.
But Giovanni Rezza, an infectious disease expert who has been helping to lead the country’s response, said it needs to fall further still before measures can be eased.
Speaking at the weekend, he said the average Italian coronavirus patient is now infecting just over one person with the virus.
That is down from 2.5 people on average before the lockdown was put in place.
‘But it must fall further,’ he said, ‘below one before the alarm is over.’
Pierluigi Lopalco, another disease expert, agreed. ‘Thinking about reopening schools on May 4th is madness and making proclamations at this time is wrong,’ he said.
Renzi made his remarks in an interview with Italian newspaper Avvenire, in which he insisted that life must be allowed to carry on during the pandemic – albeit differently than usual.
‘The coronavirus season has a before, an after, but also a during,’ he said. ‘And in the course of the course we will have to deal with reality.
‘For a year we will no longer shake hands. We will no longer be attached to the tables in a pizzeria, we will go to the cinema and the theater keeping the safety distance.
‘Crowded places will be avoided and more work will be done from home. We will live differently, but we will live. We must start again, however. Because the alternative is to shut yourself in and die.’
Matteo Renzi, Italy’s former Prime Minister and leader of the Italia Viva party, called on schools to reopen on May 4 – and warned the country risks rioting if people are locked up for too long
Members of the military stand guard outside the Michelangelo hotel in Milan, which is being used to house quarantined coronavirus sufferers
Medical personnel and patients are pictured at a newly set up intensive care unit in the physiotherapy assistance gym of the Poliambilanza hospital in Brescia
It comes as two people at each end of the age spectrum have become beacons of hope in Northern Italy, ground-zero for the coronavirus in Europe.
Leonardo, a six-month-old baby and Italica Grondona, a 102-year-old woman have both survived the virus after each faced a long battle in hospital.
Little Leonardo has recently returned home in the municipality of Corbetta in the northern Italian region of Lombardy after winning a 50-day battle against COVID-19.
Six-month-old baby Leonardo survived 50 days with the coronavirus. His mother said ‘I was worried a lot, especially at night. I do not wish that on any mother’
Local mayor Marco Ballarini called baby Leonardo ‘the wonderful face of hope’ and thanked the cute tot for helping to lift the spirits in the region.
He said: ‘Today we have a reason to smile and be happy, to feel like we are part of a community. Today, we look at the wonderful face of hope. Corbetta welcomes home little Leonardo who has just been released from hospital after defeating COVID-19.
‘Thanks a lot Leo, and thanks to your parents who never gave up. They brought summer to the hearts of all Corbetta citizens! Strength Corbetta!’
The baby’s mum told local media: ‘I was worried a lot, especially at night. I do not wish that on any mother.’
She said that she knew her baby was ill when he had a fever and his heart rate quickened, adding that her husband’s work colleague had been diagnosed with the virus.
The mother said that little Leonardo was well treated by healthcare professionals.
Italica Grondona, 102, battled the coronavirus for 20 days, with doctors calling her ‘the immortal’ as she also lived through the Spanish Flu when she was Leonardo’s ago
Meanwhile, A 102-year-old Italian woman in Genoa, also in Northern Italy, has made a miraculous recovery after catching the coronavirus and spending 20 days in hospital.
Earlier this month, Italica Grondona came down with symptoms of the deadly virus and was admitted to hospital with mild heart failure but she has since been discharged with doctors saying ‘the virus surrendered in front of her.’
‘We nicknamed her ‘Highlander’ – the immortal,’ doctor Vera Sicbaldi said to CNN, who treated the woman in the San Martino hospital in Genoa, adding that Gorondona ‘represents hope for all the elderly people facing this pandemic.’
Records from Italy’s National Health institute show that the average age of someone to die after testing positive for the coronavirus is 78, making Grondona’s case particularly exceptional.
The doctors were so impressed with the case that they decided to study it deeper, although Sicbaldi admitted that the doctor’s themselves did ‘very little’ to cure Grondona.
Sicbaldi said: ‘She only had some mild coronavirus symptoms, so we tested her and she was positive, but we did very little, she recovered on her own.’
Italy’s largest daily toll from the five-week-old epidemic was registered on Friday, when 919 people died
Given Grondona’s old-age, doctors said that it was possible she was the only patient they had treated to have also survived the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, estimated to have killed around 50 million people, after they undertook additional tests on her.
‘We got serological samples, she is the first patient we know that might have gone through the ‘Spanish flu’ since she was born in 1917,’ added Sicbaldi.
She would have been around Leonardo’s age when Spanish Flu was raging through Europe.
Amazingly, Grondona was discharged from hospital on 26 March and is now in a care home.
While her only son died in the US decades ago, her Nephew, Renato Villa Grondona has been looking out for her. When asked what her secret to surviving the virus was, he said he didn’t know, but said ‘I know she is a free and independent woman.’
‘She loves life, dancing and music, she loves Freddy Mercury and Valentino Rossi,’ the famous Italian MotoGP world champion.