Alpes Maritimes and Var classified as “green” - The Alpes-Maritimes and the Var region along with the rest of the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur has been classified as a “green” region. The map of France is designed to be an indicator of not only the circulation of the virus but also the measures to be taken at the end of the lockdown which is planned for May 11th.
A region classified as “green” is considered to be the least affected by Covid 19, the circulation of the virus is weak, and the hospitals are not overcrowded whereas a region classified as “red” means there are still too many cases of the virus and the number of patients in intensive care remains high. Those classified orange are in between the two and will switch to either red or green by the 7th May, which is when the map will be declared definite, ahead of end of the lockdown.
The Alpes Maritime and the Var had previously been classified orange and changed to green on Saturday 2nd May and remaining green on Sunday 3rd. The map is updated on a daily basis.
Details of end of lockdown - Details of the measures concerning social life and activities within the framework of the national deconfinement strategy in France presented by the Prime Minister have been published For more information
https://t.co/YllvaHRyt0 https://t.co/ZKhrWM0RNQ
The chart gives the chances of activities being available on low circulation or the virus "faible" and a high circulation of the virus "élevée".
Coronavirus cases - No deaths from coronavirus were reported on Sunday May 3rd in the Alpes-Maritimes and the Var. The latest figures show that the virus has claimed since February 28th 197 lives in the Alpes Maritimes 205 in the Var and 311 in the rest of the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur region.
In the Alpes-Maritimes, 200 people are still hospitalized, including 33 in intensive care.
In the Var, the number of hospitalizations stands at 245, of which 30 people are still in intensive care.
Monaco - Meanwhile Monaco starts its first phase of a progressive end to the lockdown today. With measures in place to allow employees back to work and the reopening of businesses in the Principality.
There were no new cases of coronavirus reported over the weekend with the number of people having tested positive remaining at 95. 78 people have recovered from the virus, 2 people remain in hospital one of which is in intensive care.
National - On a national level 50,784 patients have been discharged from hospital since the beginning of the epidemic. 25,815 people remain in hospital of which 3,819 are in intensive care. The number of deaths in France from Covid 19 stands at 24,895 deaths since March 1st.
City council meeting Nice – The City Council of Nice is to meet today to discuss measure to continue “the support for the health, safety and employment of citizens and particularly the most vulnerable".
On the agenda the council will discuss exceptional funds in social action for families hit by the health crisis along with an exceptional food aid for seniors, the exemption of rent for premises rented by the city of Nice, the creation of an exceptional bonus for those who have remained mobilized during the health crisis, a free childcare service for priority cases and a proposal that Airbnb rentals be fixed to a minimum of a least seven days to limit competition with the hotel industry and the spread of the virus.
#Cinébalcon - Nice city council has launched #cinébalcon in collaboration with Amazon prime video. Residents in Nice will from this evening be able to discover from their homes a film projected on a giant screen.
Until Friday, every evening at 8:05pm, in a different district of the city a film will be shown. The location of each screening will be announced on a daily basis on social media.
U turn by French government concerning quarantine measures - France has appeared to have made a U-turn on the quarantine of travelers. Contrary to a previous announcement concerning the quarantine of travelers which suggested an imposed isolation period of two weeks. France said on Sunday that it would not quarantine travelers arriving from the EU, the Schengen area or Britain due to the coronavirus pandemic. Concerning those French and EU citizens arriving in France from other regions the government is to make an announcement in the coming days.
Green light given to use blood plasma from cured patients - Meanwhile France's drug agency has given the green light for blood plasma from cured Covid-19 patients to be used to treat those who are critically ill with the disease – albeit under strict conditions.
The idea is to transfer the virus fighting antibodies from the blood of someone who has recovered from the virus to a newly sick person, who does yet have those antibodies.
The method has been used by more than a century to treat diphtheria, the Spanish flu, measles and chicken pox.
Business
The dollar has risen this morning and oil has fallen as the row between the United States and China over origins of the coronavirus intensified.
As countries around the world start to ease lockdown regulations ,hopes of a swift economic restart have been dashed by the potential for a new trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
US stock futures have tumbled and the price of US crude fell by 7 percent.
The latest moves come following more bleak economic data from the United States with manufacturing plunging to an 11 year low last month and more than 30 million Americans filing for unemployment.
Meanwhile ,on Sunday the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that there was a “significant amount of evidence” that the coronavirus emerged from a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Mr Pompeo gave no evidence to support his claim and did not dispute official US intelligence that the virus was not manmade but his comments have increased tensions between the two countries and follow similar claims made by President Trump on more than one occasion.
The billionaire investor Warren Buffett has said that his Berkshire Hathaway firm has sold all of its shares in the four largest US airlines.
Speaking at the firm’s annual shareholder meeting ,Mr Buffett said that “the world has changed” because of the coronavirus and that he had been wrong to invest in the airline industry.
His comments came just hours after Berkshire announced a record 50 billion dollar record first quarter net loss.
Mr Buffett started investing in the big four US airlines in 2016 and Berkshire had an 11 percent stake in Delta ,10 percent in American Airlines ,10 percent in Southwest and 9 percent of United Airlines.
He concluded that his firm would “not invest in a company that we think will chew up money”.
The US travel industry has virtually collapsed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic with airlines cutting hundreds of thousands of flights and taking thousands of planes out of service.
And-Airlines have reacted angrily to a UK government suggestion that the country could impose a 14 day quarantine for anyone arriving in Great Britain.
On Sunday ,the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that he was “actively looking at the issues so that when infection rates are under control in the UK ,we won’t be importing any more cases”.
UK airlines responded by saying that such measures would effectively kill air travel and warned that the country risked shutting itself from the rest of the world.
Airlines represented by the group include British Airways ,Virgin Atlantic ,Easyjet and Ryanair with a spokesman saying that a 14 day quarantine would be a “blunt tool”.
Sport
Football-A growing number of English Premier League clubs are saying that they are open to staging remaining fixtures at neutral venues if the threat of relegation is removed.
Clubs have been told that using up to 10 neutral stadiums will be the only way to complete the season but teams near the bottom of the table feel that it would be unfair to play in such different conditions unless the threat of relegation is removed.
If there was no relegation then clubs from the Championship could still be promoted and the Premier League would accept 22 or 23 teams next season.
Cycling-Chris Froome has said that he thinks the Tour de France can work without spectators but has raised concerns about the organiser’s ability to prevent large crowds from attending.
This year’s Tour is now due to start on the 29th of August having been suspended from its original date of the 27th of June.
Froome said that in theory ,the Tour can go ahead and it can be televised but he expressed doubts that spectators would stay away.
The four time Tour de France champion missed last year’s race after suffering career-threatening injuries in a crash but he’s regained fitness and has been training indoors for 6 hours a day.
Formula 1-The Hungarian Grand Prix will be held behind closed doors as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Organisers’ say that they’ve experimented with all kinds of ways that fans could be allowed to attend but had realised that it won’t be possible.
The race had been due to be staged on the 2nd of August but will now be pushed back to a later date as Formula 1 plans a revised calendar.
Cricket-Talks are underway to try and reschedule the West Indies tour of England.
The tour had been due to start next month but has been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The earliest date that the first Test could take place is now the 8th of July and the tourists would be quarantined for 14 days on their arrival in the UK with access to training facilities.
Weather
Clear skies with light to moderate south easterly winds.
Top temperature 22 degrees.
Overnight lows of 13 degrees with partially cloudy skies.
Tuesday and Wednesday-Partially cloudy with highs of 19-23 degrees.
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