Lunchtime News.Wednesday July 22nd 2020

Trains-There have been no trains between Nice and Ventimiglia this morning because of a power cut on the line.

The SNCF says that a rockslide early today ruptured a power catenary causing chaos at train stations along the line.

Engineers managed to restore power shortly after 11am and services have resumed ,albeit with long delays.

Travellers- Police have cleared a travellers camp in the west of Nice today which has been occupied since the summer of last year.

Authorities moved in to the camp by the side of the boulevard Jean-Luciano this morning following an appeal to the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes by the Mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi.

Covid-19- New figures released by the French National Health Agency show that there is only one person remaining in intensive care in Alpes-Maritimes hospitals.

39 patients are still receiving hospital treatment compared with 282 at the peak of the virus on the 14th of April.

However ,5 people have been admitted to hospital in the past 24 hours representing a slight increase in the number of cases affecting the department.

253 people have died from the virus in the Alpes-Maritimes since the start of the epidemic with the last death dated the 23rd of June.

The reproduction rate ‘R’ currently stands at 1.55 in the department but from a very low base of infections.

Yellow alert-The Alpes-Maritimes has been placed on a yellow weather alert by Meteo France but the bad weather should be confined to inland areas.

The French weather forecaster says that heavy storms are expected to develop in the Mercantour and other mountain areas this afternoon.

Hill walkers and hikers are advised to take extra precautions.

In National News.

Health service-The government has outlined plans to hire an extra 15,000 health and care workers as part of a post-Covid-19 plan to improve services.

The developments on training , beds ,financing and administration follows a two month consultation between Ministers and healthcare providers and unions.

Measures include a 10 percent increase in capacity at nursing colleges and the deployment of 4,000 mobile hospital beds that can be deployed across different regions to cater for extra needs.

Last week ,the government announced an extra 8.2 billion euros to raise salaries in the sector and create jobs. A further 6 billion has been added to the sum for training and equipment.

Miracle escape-Two children aged 3 and 9 have escaped after jumping from the third floor of an apartment building in Grenoble after fire broke out.

The children jumped from a height of some 10 meters with the 3 year old caught by a crowd who’d gathered outside the burning building.

Miraculously neither child suffered serious injuries but they were both taken to hospital as a precaution.

17 people were inside the building in the Villeneuve district of the city when the fire broke out. Two adults are reported to have suffered fractures and several others have been treated for smoke inhalation.

The incident was captured on video by someone in a neigbouring block.

https://fr.news.yahoo.com/grenoble-deux-enfants-3-10-062128750.html