Lunchtime News Friday 18th December 2020

News

Police checks stepped up - Police in the region have stepped up checks since the curfew from 8pm to 6am was introduced this week on Tuesday in the fight against the spread of Covid-19 in France.  

Many parts of Nice have seen spot checks carried out after 8pm. On Thursday three young people who wanted to "go to Cap 3000" were controlled and fined for failing to produce the required paperwork.

Study shows that Covid causes three times more deaths than the seasonal flu - According to a study carried out by Inserm, Covid-19 causes three times more deaths than seasonal flu, Carried out on nearly 130,000 patients hospitalized in public or private hospitals in France, a study by the National Institute for Health and Medical Research and the Dijon University Hospital published today shows that the Covid-19 causes three times as many deaths as the seasonal flu.

The researchers found that the mortality rate of patients hospitalized with Covid- 19 is 16.9%, with 15,104 deaths out of 89,530 hospitalizations between March 1 and April 30, 2020, while for seasonal influenza, the mortality rate is 5.8%, with 2,640 deaths out of 45 819 hospitalizations. With  Covid, hospital stays are also twice as long with more patients being hospitalized in intensive care.

The researchers also noted that while there are fewer children under the age of 18 to have been hospitalized for Covid-19 compared to the seasonal flu, on the other hand there are proportionately more children under the age of five of being admitted to hospital.

Inserm would like to point out that at present, "no treatment has yet been shown to be effective in preventing serious illness in patients with Covid-19". For the public establishment, this study underlines "the importance of all preventive measures (barrier measures) and highlights the need to have access to effective vaccines".

Where do you catch Covid? - Meanwhile another study published on Thursday and carried out by the Institut Pasteur has revealed the main places where more than 25,000 people were infected at the end of October in France. Bars and restaurants are singled out, but also contaminations within the home are underlined.

The first large-scale French study is divided into two parts. The first concerns the circumstances of contamination during the curfew period. The second "compares the characteristics, behaviours, and practices of the index cases matched on age, sex, region, and population density, during the period of curfew and that of lockdown from October 17th to 29th.

The authors of the study distinguished between contaminations within the home (35% of the total) and those outside (65%). The main information of the study is that "meals play a central role in contaminations, whether in a family, friendly environment, or to a lesser degree professional".

Calais - Trucks from all over Europe are crowding the last kilometers of the A16 motorway at Calais.

Since the end of November, heavy truck traffic jams have been frequent on the outskirts of Calais. An anticipated consequence of Brexit. In a few days, the UK will leave the European single market and lose the Union's customs advantages, unless a trade deal is reached first. Until then, negotiations are stalling and the increasingly possibility of a hard exit, is pushing British companies to import massively to avoid shortages or new taxes. The number of trucks passing through Calais has increased sharply, from 6,000 in normal times to nearly 9,000 on busy days.  

French national treasure presents his last lunchtime news programme - After 33 years, popular French television presenter, considered a national treasure, Jean-Pierre Pernaut will present his last lunchtime news today on TF1.

In mid-September, the journalist, aged 70, announced his decision to stand down from the daily news slot which he began in 1988.

After presenting, according to his own calculations, some 7,000 news reports, Jean-Pierre Pernaut prefers to withdraw from the mid-day news programme while he is at the height of audiences and his popularity.

Pernaut beat his audience record on Tuesday since April 2018 by attracting 5.9 million viewers, that’s a 45.8% share of the audience.

 

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