Lunchtime News Wednesday 24th June 2020

Sports complex closed in Nice - The football stadium of the Lauvette in the east of Nice, which has been closed since lockdown, will remain closed until further notice.

The Sports complex has become a “giant squat” according to the local council with residents being subjected night and day to uncivil behaviour including illegal street racing, barbecues and drug abuse.

Covid-19 testing - Testing for Covid-19 is currently being carried out at Draguignan hospital in the Var.

Since the beginning of June, 297 blood tests have been. 289 were negative, and eight positive.

Serological tests are done by appointment only. For more information contact: 04.94.60.50.44.

StopCovid app - France's new phone app for tracking coronavirus cases has only alerted 14 people that they were at risk of infection since its launch three weeks ago, with  almost half a million deciding to uninstall the app.

The StopCovid app keeps track of users who have been in close proximity of one another over a two-week period. If any become infected, they inform the platform, which alerts the others.

French officials defended the app as a vital tool for slowing the spread of Covid-19 although critics expressed data concerns.

Since its launch 68 people informed the platform they had been infected and only 14 users were alerted that they were now at risk because of their contacts with these people.

Election campaign - As candidates in the second round of France’s local elections wrap up their campaigns which have been severely affected by Covid-19 restrictions, all eyes are on the party of President Emmanuel Macron and on the race in Paris.

The second round of local elections will be held on June 28th in 4,827 cities and towns around France where the first round of votes was not decisive.  In the first round of elections, the abstention rate was 54.5 percent, the highest rate for this type of election since the founding of France's Fifth Republic in 1958.

Musée d’Orsay - The Musée d'Orsay has become the first major Parisian museum to reopen. It welcomed back the public on Tuesday after three months of closed doors.

Visitors need to reserve and masks are compulsory and only the ground floor and the fifth floor, dedicated to the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, are open.

In 2019, the museum broke its attendance record with 3.7 million visitors.