Les Infos
The News
French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that the state of lockdown will continue in France after the 15th of April. This is likely in response to the French death toll rapidly nearing 11,000. However, the spread of the virus seems to have slowed, for which the government credits the compliance of the citizenry.
This information comes from: https://www.france24.com/en/20200408-france-to-extend-coronavirus-lockdown-again-will-run-beyond-april-15
Always more aware of world events than American sources, the French news has also noted that the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen will begin a ceasefire starting… well, given the time zone differences, it’s already started as of the time of writing this. While Yemen has no recorded cases yet, it is already suffering from what I’ve heard consistently called a humanitarian disaster. Hopefully this will give the civilian population some time to recover from the war that’s been tearing their country apart for years. I remember reading about it when it first started and then being confused as to why US news stopped covering it despite it still raging.
But to end this blog on a positive note – or at least a less negative one – I also found information on how people can create their own face masks. The French government has released a mask pattern to the public and has ramped up production and purchase of masks. Even though wearing a mask does not make close contact safe or make hand washing unnecessary, French doctors recommend masks as an additional protection and a way for people to reassure themselves.
These articles were taken from France24, the English-language French news site. In my day-to-day life, however, I typically read from Franceinfo, which is French-language. I receive headline notifications from their app, which I downloaded a couple years ago to aid my French learning. I used the English articles because I figured they would be accessible to more of the people who are likely to read this blog.