New reports, new measures, highlights: an update on the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic in France and around the world.
The situation in France
French Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer ruled out Thursday a general postponement of the start of the school year due to the rebound in Covid-19 contaminations even if “local exceptions” could be considered. “Education is not an adjustment variable, neither of our societies nor of a health crisis”, declared the minister on the public television channel France 2, after rejecting a postponement of the return to September demanded by some teachers’ unions, worried about the resurgence of the epidemic in France.
Exclusive – Emmanuel Macron on the Covid-19: “We cannot bring the country to a halt”
France recorded 4,771 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, against 3,776 on Wednesday, an unprecedented increase since May, according to figures released Thursday evening by Public Health France. Since May, this is the first time that the bar of 4,000 new cases over 24 hours has been crossed. But the number of new infected patients admitted to French hospitals fell to 149, from 162 on Wednesday.
Curfew in Tunisia
Tunisian authorities on Friday reinstated a curfew in El Hamma, a city in eastern Tunisia facing an outbreak of cases of the new coronavirus, and suspended all rail links serving the region. A curfew has been established from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. for a week in this city of 100,000 inhabitants, Nacef Ennajeh, its mayor, told AFP.
According to him, El Hamma has registered a total of 441 cases of Covid-19 including fifty new cases on Thursday, mainly asymptomatic young people, and five deaths since the start of the pandemic in March. Tunisia has recorded 2,543 cases on its territory, including 63 deaths.
The King of Morocco calls for health citizenship
The King of Morocco, Mohamed VI, expressed his concern on Thursday at the “exceptional multiplication of cases of infection” with the new coronavirus in the kingdom, calling on citizens to be more civic-minded to avoid a re-containment of the country.
Morocco has been experiencing an outbreak of contaminations since the beginning of August, with a thousand new cases per day. The country of 35 million inhabitants recorded 1325 new cases of infection and 32 deaths on Thursday, bringing the toll since March to 47,638 infected, including 775 deaths and 32,806 healings.
100 million more poor
The Covid-19 crisis could push an additional 100 million people into extreme poverty around the world, even more than previously estimated, World Bank President David Malpass warned Thursday in an interview with AFP.
The institution estimates that 70 to 100 million people could fall into extreme poverty, and “that number could increase” if the pandemic worsens or lasts, he said. A previous estimate was 60 million people.
The point in the world
The novel coronavirus pandemic has made at least 793,847 dead in the world since the WHO office in China reported the onset of the disease in late December, according to a report compiled by AFP from official sources Friday at 11:00 GMT. More than 22 734 900 cases of infection have been officially diagnosed in 196 countries and territories since the start of the epidemic, of which at least 14,298,000 are now considered cured.
The United States is the most affected country in terms of both deaths and cases, with 174,290 deaths for 5,575,386 cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University count. At least 1,947,035 people have been declared cured. After the United States, the most affected countries are Brazil with 112,304 deaths for 3,501,975 cases, Mexico with 59,106 deaths (543,806 cases), India with 54,849 deaths (2,905,823 cases), and the United Kingdom with 41,403 deaths (322,280 cases).
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