French President Emmanuel Macron has been slammed by doctors for making a public appearance at a homeless shelter without a face mask and for failing to practice safe distancing.
President Macron was recently filmed visiting an old hotel in Paris that had been requisitioned to accommodate homeless people during the COVID-19 outbreak without wearing a face mask.
Local media criticised him for not wearing a mask and for failing to observe safe distances from other people.
The incident also concerned several doctors who contacted the Elysee Palace about it.
According to reports, an Elysee spokesperson told worried medics: “Get used to seeing the president making contact on the ground, it’s [Georges] Clemenceau (French prime minister during World War I) in the trenches.”
Reacting to the Elysee’s response, Gilbert Deray, head of the nephrology department at the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, said: “It’s a shame […] some people should not believe they are invincible against COVID-19 because they are not.
“Second, the president should set an example.
“Third, if you infect yourself, you infect others. It’s not the trenches, it’s not 1914, this is another battle.”
Jerome Marty, head of the French Union for Free Medicine, slammed the incident as “unbelievable”.
As the virus continues to spread across the globe, three French doctors have died as a result of COVID-19 contamination, and hundreds of medics have also tested positive in France.
According to official figures for 23rd March, 345 cases were recorded in the Ile-de-France region and 238 at the Strasbourg University Hospital alone.
As of 24th March, France has reported 20,149 cases of the virus and 860 related deaths.
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Story By: Ernest Bio Bogore, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash
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