France’s pandemic death toll reaches six figures amid new surge

15 April 2021, 18:34

People wearing masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19 cross the Bir Hakeim bridge in Paris (Michel Euler/PA)
Virus Outbreak. Picture: PA

Virus variants are driving the latest spike in deaths.

France became the third country in Europe after the UK and Italy to reach the unwanted milestone of 100,000 Covid-19-related deaths as new infections and deaths surged due to virus variants.

The country of 67 million is the eighth nation in the world to reach the mark after a year of overwhelmed hospitals, on-and-off coronavirus lockdowns and enormous personal losses that have left families nationwide grieving the pandemic’s impact.

France added 300 new deaths Thursday to the previous day’s tally of 99,777, bringing the total to 100,077 deaths.

Lionel Petitpas, president of the group Victims of Covid-19 said that the number was “an important threshold”.

100,077
Deaths with coronavirus in France
French government

After months of people getting accustomed to the virus, the figure “is piercing a lot of minds.

“It is a figure we thought would never be reached,” he said.

Mr Petitpas, who lost his wife Joelle on March 29 last year from the virus, said families of victims “want the government to make a collective gesture to recognise our collective loss”.

French President Emmanuel Macron told Le Parisien newspaper he thinks about all of the people who died in the pandemic and their families.

The pandemic was “so cruel” to individuals “who sometimes were not able to accompany, during the last moments and in death, a father, a mother, a loved one, a friend”, Mr Macron said.

Yet the crisis also shows “the ability of the French people to unite”.

French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal suggested it is too soon to set a specific date to honour those who died as France is now fighting another rapid rise in confirmed cases.

“There will be an homage for sure, a national mourning for the victims of Covid-19,” Mr Attal said.

“That time will come. … today, we throw all our forces in the battle against the epidemic.”

Experts say the 100,000 mark is an underestimate by thousands.

An analysis of death certificates shows that some Covid-19 cases were not reported or patients were not tested when people died at home, or in psychiatric units or chronic care facilities.

Mr Petitpas started a Facebook group last year for families of victims to share memories of their loved ones.

Nearly every day, new testimonies appear.

Sunbathers lie in an area marked to enforce social distancing measures in La Grande Motte, southern France (Daniel Cole/AP)
Sunbathers lie in an area marked to enforce social distancing measures in La Grande Motte, southern France (Daniel Cole/AP)

“My wife, like so many others, was just put in a body bag,” he recalled.

“It was like a luxury garbage bag.

“And then she was put in a coffin and sent to cremation.”

He was not allowed to see her.

Mr Petitpas said despite a decree in January allowing people in France to see their deceased loved ones, many places still are not allowing it.

“All these people who left us (are) like people with the plague, without human dignity, with nothing at all,” he said.

Celia Prioux-Schwab, a social services worker, lost her 82-year-old grandmother in January, four days after she was sent home from the Reims hospital — even though her family had no home-care option and she still had Covid-19.

She is now pushing for a change in French law to guarantee the right of families to visit patients in hospital even during a pandemic, “to offer support, or even just to say goodbye”.

Corine Maysounabe, a journalist in western France, has been involved in a group advising officials on a future protocols for deaths during pandemics.

She lost her 88-year-old father last year to the virus.

She described the “enormous trauma” of mourning rites being trampled on and bodies “treated at the level of objects”.

“When you’re told your father was put in a bag and covered in bleach: imagine the image you get in your head,” she said.

HEALTH Coronavirus
(PA Graphics)

Ms Maysounabe feels families and victims “are forgotten” still today. “We have gotten accustomed to 300, 400 deaths a day.”

Since Mr Macron declared “war” on the virus while announcing the country’s first lockdown on March 17 2020, the French have faced domestic and international travel restrictions that have weighed heavily on everyday life.

France plunged into a third, partial lockdown at the beginning of April, as new infections were surging and hospitals getting close to saturation.

The total number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care in France surged past 5,900 this week.

Measures include closing schools, a domestic travel ban and shutting most nonessential shops.

An overnight nationwide curfew has been in place since mid-December, and all France’s restaurants, bars, gyms, cinemas and museums have been closed since October.

Schools are set to gradually reopen starting April 26.

The government is anticipating that other restrictions will start being lifted around mid-May.

A patient suffering from Covid-19 communicates with nurses by pointing to an alphabet in the ICU at the La Timone hospital in Marseille (Daniel Cole/PA)
A patient suffering from Covid-19 communicates with nurses by pointing to an alphabet in the ICU at the La Timone hospital in Marseille (Daniel Cole/PA)

Mr Macron was meeting on Thursday with officials to get the nation prepared for the gradual reopening.

Authorities expects that 20 million people, about 38% of France’s adult population, will have received at least one vaccine jab by that time, up from 11 million now.

France has reported the most confirmed coronavirus infections in Europe, more than 5.2 million.

By Press Association

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

Video footage shows the convoy had emergency lights flashing when it was hit

Israel admits ‘mistakenly’ killing 15 aid workers after video leak contradicted official version of events

Jaguar Land Rover has paused shipments to the US in the wake of 'Liberation Day' tariffs

Jaguar Land Rover halts shipments to US in wake of tariffs as Trump insists he'll win 'economic revolution'

Flowers and toys left on a swing seat to commemorate victims killed in Russia's missile attack on Friday

Death toll from Russian strike on Zelenskyy's home town rises as 18 confirmed dead - including nine children

Donald Trump's 10% tariff on UK products has officially come into force

Trump tariffs come into force as global stock markets plunge deeper into the red

Tom Howard

British tourist killed after being struck by boulder on trek through Himalayas

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a car burns following a Russian missile attack that killed more than a dozen people, including children, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Russia kills 16 people including three children in missile strike on Zelenskyy's home town, with dozens wounded

Travel influencer Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, made an illegal visit to North Sentinel Island

Tourist who left Coke for world's most isolated tribe 'could have wiped them all out' - and police 'can't go collect can'

White House weighs in to support ‘censored’ anti-abortion activists in Britain

White House looking to support ‘censored’ anti-abortion activists in Britain

This image provided by NASA shows Nick Hague, right, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore. (NASA via AP)

Stranded NASA astronauts reveal they were almost trapped in space 'forever' after horror malfunction

Donald Trump demands France 'free Marine Le Pen'

Donald Trump demands France 'free Marine Le Pen' after far-right leader found guilty of embezzlement in 'witch hunt'

China will impose a 34% retaliatory tariff on imports from the US

China announces additional 34% tariffs on US imports in retaliation over Trump's 'Liberation Day' levies

Friends of Prince Andrew say he's "unsurprised" Giuffre made the post

Prince Andrew 'not surprised' his accuser shared shock post saying she had 'four days to live'

South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol

South Korea president Yoon Suk Yeol removed from office as impeachment upheld over martial law declaration

Virginia Giuffre

Woman driving Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre during crash that left her with 'four days to live' breaks silence

Exclusive
'Donald Trump has made Putin comfortable,' Mikhail Khodorkovsky has warned

'Trump has made Putin comfortable' despite massive Ukraine war losses, exiled former oligarch tells LBC

The bodies of Andrew Searle and his wife Dawn were discovered by a neighbour.

British couple found dead in south of France home being ‘treated as murder-suicide’