France passes grim milestone of 100,000 deaths from Covid-19

Data from the health ministry said French hospitals registered another 300 Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours on 15 April, pushing the overall tally to more than 100,000.

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 is the third country in Europe to record more than 100,000 deaths, after the United Kingdom and Italy. The United States is the worst-hit country in terms of coronavirus deaths, at 564,000, followed by Brazil, Mexico and India. Worldwide, the death toll stands at over three million.

France’s fatality rate from the disease has 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.

The authorities expect that 20 million people, about 38 percent of France’s adult population, will have received at least one vaccine shot by that time – up from 11 million now.