By Lori Hinnant and Angela Charlton | 18 October 2020
ASSOCIATED PRESS — French police searched the homes of the health minister, the former prime minister and other top officials Thursday in an investigation into the government’s response to the global coronavirus pandemic.
The dawn searches, confirmed by the Health Ministry, come as France is fighting against a resurgent epidemic that has now filled a third of the country’s intensive care units with COVID-19 patients and is again putting Europe to the test. President Emmanuel Macron announced curfews on around 20 million people in the Paris region and eight other French metropolitan areas starting Friday night to try to slow the tide.
The investigation threatens to rekindle public frustration with a government that’s been accused of lying to the public about mask stocks, underestimating testing needs and overestimating France’s ability to vanquish the pandemic — not once, but now twice.
About 1,000 protesting nurses, doctors and other public hospital staff marched through Paris on Thursday to demand more investment, staff and higher salaries after years of cost cuts. […]
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