COVID-19 deaths in France exceed 100,000, eighth-highest toll in the world

FILE PHOTO: A general view shows people registering to get a dose of the “Comirnaty” Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Parc des Expositions in Angers as part of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination campaign in France, April 13, 2021. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

PARIS — France’s COVID-19 death toll rose on Thursday to more than 100,000, according to the latest hospital figures from the health ministry, a bleak statistic for President Emmanuel Macron’s government.

Data from the health ministry’s GEODES website said French hospitals registered 300 COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, which, pushing the overall tally to more than 100,000.

“As all our energy is now focused on exiting this ordeal, we will not forget any face or any name,” Macron said on Twitter.

France has the world’s eighth-highest COVID-19 death toll. The United States is the worst-hit country in terms of COVID deaths, at 564,759, followed by Brazil, Russia, and Mexico, according to a Reuters tally.

Worldwide, the death toll stands at over three million.

Coronavirus deaths in France have now nearly doubled from just over 52,000 at the end of its second lockdown at the end of November.

In the past 30 days, France has registered on average just over 300 new COVID-19 deaths per day, or 9,000 per month, compared to nearly 16,000 per month during the second lockdown.

Health ministry data also showed that 5,924 people were in intensive care units on Thursday, up from 5,902 a day earlier.

There were 38,045 new coronavirus cases on Thursday against 43,505 on Wednesday, bringing the total tally to 5.18 million.

Still, with France’s vaccination campaign focused on retirement care homes, the death toll among senior citizens has dropped sharply from more than 1,500 per week in mid-November and 800 per week in the first half of January to just 48 last week.