the times | Thursday December 3 2020 2GM 15News
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the former
French president, died last night at the
age of 94 from complications linked to
Covid-19, his foundation said.
“In accordance with his wishes, his
funeral will take place in the strictest
family intimacy,” the Foundation Val-
éry Giscard d’Estaing said on Twitter.
Mr Giscard d’Estaing, a colourful
figure who was head of state between
1974 and 1981, had been hospitalised
with a heart problem on November 17.
He is survived by Anne-Aymone, 87,
his wife, and their four children, the
best known of whom is Henri, the chief
executive of Club Med, the holiday
resort group.
Mr Giscard d’Estaing came to power
in mid-Seventies following the death in
office of Georges Pompidou towards
the end of a French economic boom.
He was 48 at the time and was France
youngest elected head of state until the
record was eclipsed by Emmanuel
Macron, who became president in 2017
aged 39.
Tall, handsome and seductive, Mr
Giscard d’Estaing seemed to enshrine a
modern, forward-looking France that
contrasted with Harold Wilson’s down-
beat Britain when he arrived in office.
Despite aristocratic roots, he strove
to convince the French that he was in
touch with ordinary voters, inviting
himself in the living rooms of families
who looked often ill at ease in hispresence. Yet his term of office was
marked by public scandal, notably
when it emerged that he had accepted
diamonds from Jean-Bédel Bokassa,
the self-proclaimed emperor of the
Central African Republic.
Mr Giscard d’Estaing’s death comes
as France attempts to prevent a repeat
of the coronavirus outbreak at the be-
ginning of the year by imposing seven
days of quarantine on travellers who
return from Christmas ski holidays in
Switzerland, Spain and other countries.
The move is an attempt by Mr Macron
to stop people going abroad to beat the
local ban on downhill skiing.
Amid French anger over Switzer-
land’s decision to allow the season to go
ahead, Jean Castex, the prime minister,
admitted that compulsory isolation
was the only way of enforcing Mrmonths out of the cockpit
about three hours in the previous 90
days although he was an instructor.
Like many countries, Indonesia’s avia-
tion authority had allowed exemptions
to proficiency rules to cope with the
pandemic.
In the Karachi crash, the pilots at-
tempted a landing without lowering the
undercarriage before taking off again.
Patrick Ky, executive director of the
European Union Aviation Safety Agen-
cy, suggested in September that the
pandemic was partly to blame.
“The pilots did not seem to be as flu-
ent in the way they were conducting
their flights as they should have [been],”
he said. “If you haven’t flown for three
months, six months, you need to be re-trained in some way in order to come
back.”
A lack of simulators, which cost
about €15 million each, means some
airlines have allowed crew licences to
lapse despite special Covid-19 exten-
sions to their validity granted by
national agencies. The International
Air Transport Association is trying to
create travel bubbles to enable pilots to
reach simulators in other countries to
keep up their licences and proficiency.
South Korea’s Asiana Airlines sent
pilots out to practise flying empty Air-
bus A380 superjumbos in the spring
because their access to simulators in
Thailand was blocked. They were later
allowed to use simulators in Japan.Italians are stuck in their
home towns for Christmas
Tom Kington RomeItalians will be banned from leaving
their home towns on Christmas Day,
Boxing Day and New Year’s Day to try
to halt a third wave of infections before
vaccines arrive in January.
Italy’s three-tier restrictions system
divides regions into yellow, orange and
red zones, similar to the UK, but unlike
Britain the government has decided to
strengthen curbs, rather than waive
many of them, over the holiday period.
The health minister told parliament
that the country must make one last
effort to avoid infection over Christmas
before the inoculation programme be-
gins. Italy had reserved 203 million vac-
cine doses and has lined up the army
and 20,000 medics to administer them.
“We must be careful not to mistake
the first ray of sunlight for an escape
from danger,” Roberto Speranza said.
“If we lower our guard, the third wave is
round the corner.”
He said the government was plan-
ning to ban people leaving their home
towns on December 25, 26, and January
1 and stop them leaving their home re-
gions throughout the festive period,
while discouraging international travel.
Italy was the first European country
to be hit hard by Covid-19 in March. It
has registered 56,000 deaths, second
only to the UK in Europe. Believing
they had beaten the virus in the sum-
mer, many Italians took holidays, only
for Covid-19 to resurface at crowded
venues like discos in Sardinia, prompt-
ing a second wave in which new daily
cases exceeded 40,000 last month and
785 deaths were recorded on Tuesday.
Over the past 14 days, Italy has regis-
tered almost double the number of new
cases seen in the UK, with clustersappearing nationwide. New infections
are now dropping however, and
Mr Speranza said that the national R
infection rate stood at 1.08, down from
1.7 a month ago. Nevertheless, experts
fear that crowded Christmas dinners
could be as dangerous as packed dance
floors in July and August.
“We have got to avoid what
happened in the summer — if people
have 20 guests over for Christmas and
head out for parties on New Year’s Eve
we will be back in lockdown by
January,” a health ministry official said.
Lombardy, Italy’s richest region, was
shifted from red to orange status on
Sunday, meaning that shops could
open. It may move to yellow this
month, allowing movement outside
towns.
Concern is growing that crowds of
Christmas shoppers may cause new
clusters. Long queues have formed
every day around Rome’s first Primark
store, which opened last week.
Rules for Christmas are expected to
be included in a government decree
published today.
A 10pm curfew will probably be kept,
so the traditional Mass that Italians
attend at midnight on Christmas Eve
will need to be brought forward. “I say
this as a Catholic — it would not be a
heresy to have Jesus born two hours
earlier and bring forward Mass,”
Francesco Boccia, the regional affairs
minister, has said.
Mr Speranza, whose name means
“hope” in Italian, suggested that most
vaccinations will take place next spring
and summer. Italy has reserved large
quantities from all the companies
making vaccines to ensure it does not
miss out if one vaccine proves more ef-
ficient than another, he said.German rate
of cases may
pass Britain’s
Oliver Moody BerlinGermany’s coronavirus infection rate
could soon surpass Britain’s for the first
time since April 2, as Angela Merkel’s
government struggles to suppress a
second wave.
Yesterday the German infectious
diseases agency registered 487 deaths,
the country’s highest total for a single
day since the start of the pandemic,
bringing the total toll to 17,516. Its
statistics are collated more quickly than
the World Health Organisation’s tally.
The number of new cases has more
or less plateaued over the past four
weeks, prompting concerns that the
relatively gentle “wave-breaker” re-
strictions on the population are not do-
ing enough to curb social interactions.
At the start of November, as Britain
went into a second lockdown, Germany
closed its bars, gyms, restaurants and
arts venues but allowed shops, schools,
nurseries and hair salons to stay open.
The UK’s infection rate may already
have subsided to roughly the same level
as Germany’s, according to figures
compiled by Johns Hopkins University
in the US, although both numbers are
provisional. Over the past seven days
Britain had 154.1 new cases per 100,
people, while Germany had 156.9.
A recent policy paper circulated by
the chancellor’s office suggested that
the “lockdown-lite” had only cut social
contacts by 40 per cent and called for a
“renewed effort of collective will”.
The aim is to reduce the seven-day
rate to below 50 cases per 100,000 so
that the contact tracing system can
operate effectively again.Wo r l d Coronavirus News
French ex-president dies
after contracting Covid
Macron’s promise of “restrictive and
dissuasive measures” to stop the
French heading to neighbouring
slopes. The quarantine will also apply
to foreign skiers entering France from
other destinations. No other details of
the quarantine have been given but it is
assumed to mean isolation at home.
France was disappointed that
Switzerland, Austria and possibly Spain
had turned a deaf ear to French, Ger-
man and Italian calls for a Europe-wide
closure of winter sports resorts, the
prime minister said.
Returning travellers will be subject to
random frontier checks and ordered in-
to isolation. They will also have to pro-
duce negative tests. “I will continue to
protect my fellow citizens by stopping
them [from] going and getting infect-
ed,” Mr Castex said.
Mr Macron’s promise on Tuesday to
stop foreign skiing was ridiculed by
opposition leaders and the media. The
conservative Republicans Party said
that the president was “trying to impose
a health dictatorship”.
Marine Le Pen, of the National Rally,
said France could not keep out terror-
ists and illegal migrants “but as if by
magic, we can control the frontiers to
stop the French using Swiss ski tows”.
A cartoon in Le Monde showed police
stopping a Frenchman skiing into
Switzerland while a shady-looking man
with suitcases of cash was entering
unhindered. Le Point news site suggest-
ed that Mr Macron should appoint a
“high commissioner for ski boots”.Charles Bremner Paris
Adam SageValéry Giscard d’Estaing with Margaret
Thatcher at Downing Street in 1979JAMES DEVANEY/GC IMAGES/GETTY IMAGESDutch health minister said: “We
will make sure we are ready as
soon as we get the green light.”
About 40 per cent of the
population are “hesitant” about
being vaccinated meaning that the
Netherlands may not reach the 70-
80 per cent vaccination rate
needed. Antivax campaigns have
been led by Christian
fundamentalists and in some areas
of the Dutch “Bible belt” the
percentage of children vaccinated
against measles is only 80 per
cent.united states
A total of 41 people have tested
positive after attending a swingers
convention in New Orleans. About
250 people gathered in the city in
mid-November for “Naughty in
N’awlins”. One of those infected
was in a serious condition in
hospital, according to Bob
Hannaford, the event’s organiser.
Mr Hannaford wrote in a blog
post: “When we contacted the
people that were positive... they
admitted that they were super
diligent on the first two days and
then they relaxed a little. If I could
go back in time, I would not
produce this event again.”Global deaths
1,475,World update
Global cases
63,360,1 2 3 4 5 6 7 889Most new casesSource: WHOUS
India
Russia
Brazil
Italy
Germany
UK
Iran
ChinaUS
Brazil
India
Mexico
UK1
2
3
4
5Countries reporting most deathsDeaths per million population**Countries with populations greater than 20m1,
973
932
879
857Peru
Spain
Italy
UK
Argentina151204
36,21,25,19,
17,
16,
13,
91266,
173,
138,
105,
59,Best foot forward The Radio
City Rockettes perform at
the 88th Rockefeller Center
Christmas tree lighting
ceremony in New York