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France's Health Minister Brigitte Bourguignon (third from right) visiting a nursing home
Photo: YOHAN BONNET / AFP
The administrative court of Paris has certified that the French state failed in the initial management of the pandemic and in preventing the corona crisis.
The court ruled that it was a mistake not to have a sufficiently large stock of masks before the outbreak of the pandemic.
Government statements at the beginning of the crisis that wearing a mask was useless for the general population were also wrong.
This contradicted the available scientific data.
No Compensation for Plaintiffs
Several sick and surviving dependents of people who had died as a result of a corona infection had turned to the court.
The court rejected their claims for damages: There was not a sufficiently direct connection between the mistakes made by the state and the infection of the people.
The court also ruled that the government had made no mistakes in precautionary stockpiling of disinfectant.
The population was not sent into the lockdown too late and tested on a large scale.
The court only dealt with the period up to May 2020. France was initially particularly hard hit by the corona pandemic.
In mid-March 2020, the government imposed a strict lockdown.
Minister of Health calls for people to wear masks
France is also currently experiencing a summer wave.
France reported 17,601 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, the highest number on a Monday since April 18.
The number of new infections in the country has risen steadily since the end of May.
Health Minister Brigitte Bourguignon has called on French residents to wear masks again on public transport and in closed spaces.
Read more about the currently increasing number of infections here:
The driving force behind the summer wave - How experts assess the corona subtype BA.5
This is how "reinfections" contribute to the summer wave
Interview with virologist Christian Drosten about the fight against Corona
The FDP and corona protection measures in autumn
svs/dpa