PARIS: The coronavirus death count in France surged to nearly 5,400 people on Thursday after the health ministry began including nursing home fatalities in its data.
Jerome Salomon, head of the health authority, said the pandemic had by Thursday claimed the lives of 4,503 patients in hospitals, up 12% on the previous day’s 4,032. A provisional tally showed the coronavirus had killed a further 884 people in nursing homes and other care facilities, he added.
This makes for a total of 5,387 lives lost to coronavirus in France — an increase of 1,355 over Wednesday’s cumulative total — although data has not yet been collected from all of the country’s 7,400 nursing homes.
“We are in France confronting an exceptional epidemic with an unprecedented impact on public health,” Salomon told a news conference.
More than two thirds of all the known nursing home deaths have been registered in the Grand Est region, which abuts the border with Germany.
It was the first region in France to be overwhelmed by a wave of infections that has rapidly moved west to engulf greater Paris, where hospitals are desperately trying to add intensive care beds to cope with the influx of critically ill patients.
The care sector has called for blanket testing for all staff, with the virus often entering these homes through employees. More than 1 million people live in France’s care homes.
“We have to limit the impact on old people as we know that they are the most fragile,” said Romain Gizolme, head of an association for the care of the elderly.
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France’s coronavirus death toll jumps as nursing homes included
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France’s coronavirus death toll jumps as nursing homes included
- More than two thirds of all the known nursing home deaths have been registered in the Grand Est region, which abuts the border with Germany
US envoy says Trump questioning why Iran has not ‘capitulated’
- US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Saturday that President Donald Trump is questioning why Iran has not “capitulated” in the face of Washington’s military build-up
WASHINGTON: US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Saturday that President Donald Trump is questioning why Iran has not “capitulated” in the face of Washington’s military build-up aimed at pressuring them into a nuclear deal.
The United States and Iran this week resumed Oman-mediated talks in Geneva aimed at averting the possibility of military action, after Washington dispatched two aircraft carriers, jets and weaponry to the region to back its warnings.
In a Fox News interview with Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara, Witkoff said the president was “curious” about Iran’s position after he had warned them of severe consequences in the event they failed to strike a deal.
“I don’t want to use the word ‘frustrated,’ because he understands he has plenty of alternatives, but he’s curious as to why they haven’t... I don’t want to use the word ‘capitulated,’ but why they haven’t capitulated,” he said.
“Why, under this pressure, with the amount of seapower and naval power over there, why haven’t they come to us and said, ‘We profess we don’t want a weapon, so here’s what we’re prepared to do’? And yet it’s sort of hard to get them to that place.”
The US envoy also confirmed in the interview that he had met with Reza Pahlavi, who has not returned to Iran since before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the monarchy.
“I met him at the direction of the president,” he said, without providing further details.
US-based Pahlavi last week told a crowd in Munich that he was ready to lead the country to a “secular democratic future” after Trump said regime change would be best for the country.
Witkoff’s comments come after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a draft proposal for an agreement with Washington would be ready in a matter of days.
Trump said on Thursday that Iran had at most 15 days to make a deal on concerns starting with its nuclear program.
As talks between the two nations continued in Geneva, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday said that Trump would not succeed in destroying the Islamic republic.
Western countries accuse the Islamic Republic of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies, though it insists on its right to enrichment for civilian purposes.
Iran, for its part, is seeking to negotiate an end to sanctions that have proven to be a massive drag on its economy, which played a role in sparking anti-government protests in December.
The United States and Iran this week resumed Oman-mediated talks in Geneva aimed at averting the possibility of military action, after Washington dispatched two aircraft carriers, jets and weaponry to the region to back its warnings.
In a Fox News interview with Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara, Witkoff said the president was “curious” about Iran’s position after he had warned them of severe consequences in the event they failed to strike a deal.
“I don’t want to use the word ‘frustrated,’ because he understands he has plenty of alternatives, but he’s curious as to why they haven’t... I don’t want to use the word ‘capitulated,’ but why they haven’t capitulated,” he said.
“Why, under this pressure, with the amount of seapower and naval power over there, why haven’t they come to us and said, ‘We profess we don’t want a weapon, so here’s what we’re prepared to do’? And yet it’s sort of hard to get them to that place.”
The US envoy also confirmed in the interview that he had met with Reza Pahlavi, who has not returned to Iran since before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the monarchy.
“I met him at the direction of the president,” he said, without providing further details.
US-based Pahlavi last week told a crowd in Munich that he was ready to lead the country to a “secular democratic future” after Trump said regime change would be best for the country.
Witkoff’s comments come after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a draft proposal for an agreement with Washington would be ready in a matter of days.
Trump said on Thursday that Iran had at most 15 days to make a deal on concerns starting with its nuclear program.
As talks between the two nations continued in Geneva, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday said that Trump would not succeed in destroying the Islamic republic.
Western countries accuse the Islamic Republic of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies, though it insists on its right to enrichment for civilian purposes.
Iran, for its part, is seeking to negotiate an end to sanctions that have proven to be a massive drag on its economy, which played a role in sparking anti-government protests in December.
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