France recorded its highest one-day death toll from coronavirus on Wednesday with 509 more fatalities, bringing the total number of deaths since the epidemic began to 4,032. The French PM said the lockdown, set to run until at least April 15th, will likely be eased in stages around the country.
The coronavirus outbreak continued to have a huge impact on life in France on Friday as President Emmanuel Macron announced schools are to close and urged over-70s to remain in doors. Disneyland Paris also closed its gates.
French health chiefs repeated the latest advice for the public on Sunday on how they can best avoid becoming infected or spreading coronavirus. The government has also taken measures to prevent the crisis deepening with the number of cases on the rise.
Paris, home to two of the three French people taken ill in China's coronavirus outbreak, cancelled a Lunar New Year parade on Sunday as a "precaution", the capital's mayor Anne Hidalgo said.
France's Health Minister Marisol Touraine has urged pregnant women not to travel to France's overseas territories for fear of contracting the Zika virus, which shrinks babies' brains. Experts, meanwhile, say the virus could soon hit France.
French researchers will conduct trials with prototype Ebola diagnostic tests in Guinea in November, with results expected within weeks for speedy deployment, the head of France's Ebola task force said on Thursday.
France on Tuesday said it was pledging €20 million ($25.4 million) in the fight against Ebola in west Africa,including the opening of several care centres in Guinea.
France and Germany will send military transport planes to West Africa to help efforts to contain the Ebola epidemic, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and military officials said on Friday.
A routine inventory at the prestigious French research body Institut Pasteur in Paris revealed it has lost some 2,300 tubes containing samples of the potentially deadly SARS virus.
The Ebola virus epidemic that has killed over 80 people in west Africa has prompted French health authorities to set up new procedures for airlines and send out an alert urging hospitals to be ready for a case of the disease.
French scientists said on Monday they had re-activated an ancient virus they found preserved in the Siberian ice. It may not sound like a good idea, but the scientists insist it is a warning about what unknown killer strains could be released by global warming.
The World Health Organization has advised French people to stay calm after two cases of a deadly new SARS-like virus were confirmed over the weekend, and asked that they not overburden hospitals so those actually infected could be treated.
French health authorities said one person was suspected of contracting a deadly new SARS-like virus after coming into contact with a man confirmed to be infected, following tests that cleared another three patients.
