PARIS- For the first time in months, virus infections — and deaths — in French nursing homes are on the rise again.
Families fear that French authorities haven’t learned enough lessons from the initial wave of the pandemic, when nursing homes shuttered elderly residents inside and staff were short of protective equipment. Of the 31,338 people confirmed to have died in France with the virus this year, more than 14,000 — or nearly half — lived in nursing homes.
President Emmanuel Macron was visiting a nursing home in the town of Bracieux in central France on Tuesday, as the government tries to manage resurgent infections while insisting that the country should be back at school and work and should “learn to live with the virus.”
That strategy is under increasing strain.
France is now reporting several thousand new virus cases a day and more than 80 weekly new cases per 100,000 people, among the highest rates in Europe, which itself is seeing the virus spread rapidly.
Like Britain and some other countries, France is also struggling with testing logjams. A massive testing effort has helped identify more confirmed cases but labs are struggling to keep up with demand.
It takes as much as a week or more for virus test results in Paris and some other French cities to come back. The health agency says those delays mean the real case count of new infections is even higher – and is damaging medical authorities’ efforts to trace contacts and stop the spread of the virus. (AP)