Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

HEALTH

France records over 500 more coronavirus deaths in 24 hours

France recorded another 541 coronavirus deaths in the country's hospitals in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities up to 10,809 on Wednesday. However, the rise in intensive care admissions continued to slow.

Published: 8 April 2020 20:33 CEST
France records over 500 more coronavirus deaths in 24 hours
Photo: AFP

The total number of coronavirus deaths included 7,632 fatalities in hospitals since March 1st.

The remaining deaths were reported in the country's elderly care homes (known as Ehpad). However far from all the Ehpad nursing homes in the country have reported their death tolls.

France's Director General of Health Jérôme Salomon said that due to a technical fault there was no daily data available from the Ehpads on Wednesday, and that the overall death toll was likely incomplete. On Tuesday he gave the death toll in nursing homes since the epidemic began as 3,237.

Salomon confirmed that a total of 7,148 coronavirus patients were in intensive care in French hospitals on Wednesday.

Of these, 108 were aged less than 30 years old.

A total of 30,375 people were receiving hospital treatment on Wednesday.
 

Wednesday's total number of intensive care patients was larger than Tuesday's (7,131) and included 482 new admissions.

“It's a considerable number,” Salomon said.

At the same time, the total number of patients in intensive care had slowed down over the past week, thanks the rising number of patients whose condition had improved.

On Wednesday the overall net increase was only 17 from the day earlier, the smallest intensive care jump recorded in recent weeks – beating the former record of Tuesday. (+59).

At the beginning of April the number of patients in intensive care was rising by several hundred each day.

“We have doubled our national intensive care capacity,” Salomon said in the evening press briefing. “We're doing everything (..), to ease pressure and support our hospitals.”

Salomon and other health experts have pinpointed intensive care rates as key to monitor the epidemic curve. 

Salomon said he hoped France would see a flattening in its curve of cases in coming days but emphasised that this “plateau is at a very high level.”

Wednesday's daily hospital death toll of 541 was smaller than than the day before (607) and Monday's (605). It was, however, larger than the 441 and 357 reported on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

Again, the health director announced some positive news, as the number of people who had completely recovered since the beginning of the epidemic had increased to 21,254. That number only included those who were admitted to the hospital, Salomon said, “not the thousands who had recovered at home.”

France has been on a national lockdown since March 17th and will likely remain so for weeks to come. The current end-date is set to April 15th, but the country's Scientific Council – the body specifically selected to advise the government on their steps to tackle the virus  – told French media this morning that the lockdown should last for several weeks longer.

Salomon said he understood that staying at home was difficult, but said respecting the confinement rules was key in combating the virus.

“It feels like you are being passive, but you are actually making a big difference,” he said.

“By staying at home, you are saving one life every eight minutes.”

France counted 82,000 confirmed coronavirus cases on Wednesday, but that was only those who had been tested and the real number was expectedly higher.
 
Since the beginning of the lockdown, the country has reduced its contagion rate from 2,5 to 1, meaning the average victim now infected less than one person –  
 
“You are our most efficient weapon against this virus,” Salomon said.

“I'm telling you, stay home.”

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

LIVING IN FRANCE

How to prove to French authorities that you are alive

If you live in France you'll be used to official requests for all sorts of documents, but one that may come as a surprise is being asked to prove that you're still alive. Here's how to do that.

Published: 19 September 2024 15:57 CEST
How to prove to French authorities that you are alive

Official processes in France usually involve collecting together a big dossier of documents, and requests for certain type of certificate are common (the one for ‘a birth certificate issued within the last three months’ regularly baffles foreigners).

A request that is less common – but still vital – is the request for a Certificat de Vie – a certificate of life, which is basically a piece of paper asserting that you remain within the mortal realm.

Here’s how to get it and why you might need one.

Who needs it?

You only need to provide this certificate if it is requested from you.

The people most likely to get a request for a Certificat de Vie are pensioners. Pensioner providers regularly ask for proof that you are still alive, and if you don’t provide it it’s highly likely that they will stop paying out your pension.

The people most commonly asked to provide this are people living in a different country to the one paying out the pension (so for example people who have worked in France but then moved to another country, or pensioners who have moved to France) but they are fairly widespread for all types of pension.

The other people most likely to ask for it is the benefits office, especially if you are receiving a French Assurance invalidité (disability benefit) or Allocation de solidarité (top-up benefits) – as with pensions, failing to send the certificate can result in your payments being stopped.

Some people may instead be asked for an Attestation sur l’honneur de non-décès (sworn declaration of non-death). This is simpler to provide because it’s not a specific form it’s just something that you write out in formal French declaring that you remain alive, and then sign and date.

You can find templates for creating an attestation in the correct format and legal French here.

How to get it

There are two ways to obtain the Certificat de Vie – in person or online.

If you live in France, you go along in person to your local mairie and ask them to complete the form for you – it’s form Cerfa n° 11753*02, but the mairie staff will know that. Be sure to take with you official ID (ie passport or French ID card), and depending on your circumstances mairie staff may ask for extra paperwork such as proof of address.

Once you have the form, you can send it to whoever has requested it, either by registered mail or a scanned copy uploaded to an online portal.

You can find a sample copy here to show you what the form looks like.

If you live outside France, you can request the certificate at the French consulate, while some police stations will also provide it (depending on the country).

But for those living outside France there is also an online option, which now includes the option to verify your continuing life via your biometric details, meaning that you don’t even need to leave the house.

This would be useful to people who have worked in France for part of their career, meaning they get a partial French pension, but have then either returned to their home country or moved to another country.

In order to use this, you need to download the app ‘Mon Certificat de Vie’ – find full instructions on using it here.

SHOW COMMENTS