Over 10,000 people have now died due to the Covid-19 epidemic in France. But the rate of admissions to hospital and to intensive care is down.

The death toll is grim but the admissions figures are the ones to watch to track the evolution of the epidemic. There were 305 hospital admissions yesterday, compared to over 1,000 every day last week and 1,882 a week ago, when 452 were admitted to intensive care, compared to 59 yesterday.  

Officials also say that some of the statistics may have been underreported at the weekend, pushing them up a bit at the beginning of this week.

Going out for physical exercise, permitted for about half an hour by the government’s decree, has now been banned between the hours of 10.00am and 7.00pm in Val-de-Marne, the département where we live, as it has been in Paris and some other parts of the banlieue.

Being ultra-cautious because of Mum’s advanced age, I was not taking advantage of the exercise clause. But I wonder if the restriction is wise.

Won’t it mean more people jogging at the same time and thus less social distancing? I suppose they calculate that it will reduce the net amount.

People living in tiny Paris flats must become desperate from time to time. I wonder what the longer-term effects on mental health will be, not to mention alcoholism and domestic violence.

Several local councils have either made covering your face compulsory or are thinking of doing so. There’s still a mask shortage, so you have to use a scarf or download one of those helpful online videos and raid your old T-shirt stock.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo says that two million masks will be distributed to the city’s residents soon. If some other city doesn’t nick the supply, that is. Bouches-du-Rhône, the département around Marseille, only received 300,000 of an order for three million because the others were requisitioned for the Grand Est, where the virus has hit really hard.

Bourgogne-Franche Comté, which includes Burgundy and the Jura, also lost its order. Admittedly there are few cases there.

Paris’s masks will be made by small “socially responsible” companies in France, she says, which begs the question why the government hasn’t done more on the local-production front.

The city also plans to place hand-cleanser distributors in public places by the time lockdown finishes, an idea I believe is inspired by some Asian countries.

The French economy is now officially in recession. GDP fell 6% in the first quarter of 2020, the worst drop since the end of World War II. A quarter of the workforce – 5.8 million people – is laid off.

Having failed to ban a rally by the Tablighi-Jamaat Islamic sect, the Pakistani authorities are now struggling to track down the 100,000 people who attended.

The number of infections in the country is rising – it’s now officially 4,000 and the death toll is 55. Officials say that 60% of cases are either people returning from Iran, where Covid-19 has hit hard, or people who attended the gathering in Lahore.

They are now scattered around the country, spreading the virus. Officials have found 20,000 and 539 have tested positive in Punjab, which is the only province to issue figures. The organisers didn’t bother to keep records of who attended.

Tablighi Jamaat has also been blamed for spreading the virus by refusing to cancel huge assemblies in India and Malaysia.

Religious gatherings have helped spread the virus in several countries, including France. It’s all very well believing God will protect you but then you put other people’s lives in danger. In Italy a football match helped the epidemic spread.

The Covid-19 death toll now officially stands at 10,328, with 597 dying in the last 24 hours. There are 30,027 people in hospital, 7,131 in intensive care. The total number of recorded cases is 78,167, up 3,777 in 24 hours but that is certainly a huge underestimate.