Lunchtime News Wednesday 3rd June 2020

Frontier opened- There have been reports of long queues at the Italian border in the Alpes Maritimes as Italy opens its frontiers to EU citizens from today. Anyone coming into France from Italy will have to prove residence and will be required to carry an authorisation permit.

Forms are available on the French Interior Ministry website and must be completed before travelling. People wishing to enter France must also be carrying proof of residence such as an electricity bill which is dated no longer than a year ago.

Bars and gyms-Many bars and gyms have reopened in the South of France with strict hygiene measures in force.

Reports say that the flow of customers has been “slow to moderate” at many establishments while people wishing to eat at restaurants are being required to reserve before turning up.

Gyms are limiting class sizes and access to workout spaces to stop too many people being in the same room at the same time.

Many people still appear to be extremely cautious about resuming their pre-virus habits and turnover has been mainly slow.

Business is slow for campsites in the Alpes Maritimes - Meanwhile, the president of the regions union of outdoor accommodation Yves Monferran, has said that "business is extremely slow following the reopening of campsites on the Côte dAzur".

The Alpes-Maritimes has around 90 campsites and "unlike the Var region the Alpes Maritimes campsites are not as big" says Monferran who hopes to see clients return over the coming months. 

Antibiotics - The World Health Organisation has warned that the increased use of antibiotics to fight the Covid-19 pandemic will strengthen bacterial resistance and lead to more deaths.

The director-general of the World Health Organisation said a worrying number of bacterial infections were becoming increasingly resistant to the medicines traditionally used to treat them.

As a result, the organisation has issued guidance to doctors not to provide antibiotic therapy to patients with mild Covid-19, or to patients with moderate illness without a clinical suspicion of bacterial infection.

The Lancet medical journal issue statement over medical study - Meanwhile, the prestigious medical journal The Lancet has distanced itself from the much-criticized study it published on the hydroxychloroquine used as a treatment against Covid-19

The journal wishes to "alert readers to the fact that serious scientific questions have been brought to [its] attention" regarding the study, which is currently the subject of an audit initiated by its authors.

The warning was issued in the form of an "expression of concern", a formal statement used by scientific journals to indicate that a study is potentially problematic.

The study in question led to the discontinuation of hydroxychloroquine clinical trials worldwide, as it concluded that the drug is not beneficial to hospitalized Covid-19 patients and may even be harmful. Published on May 22 in The Lancet, it draws on data from 96,000 patients hospitalized between December and April in 671 hospitals and compares the status of those who received treatment with that of patients who did not.

In the wake of its release, many researchers expressed doubts about the study, including skeptical scientists about the benefit of hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19.

The study was also attacked by the defenders of hydroxychloroquine, foremost the French researcher Didier Raoult. After having already described the study as "messy", he estimated that it had been incorrectly carried out in a video posted online Tuesday, June 2.