A “much-loved” French girl with no underlying medical conditions is believed to have become the youngest in Europe to die from coronavirus.
Tributes were today paid to the 16-year-old, identified as Julie A, who succumbed to respiratory problems in a Paris hospital on Wednesday after first developing a “slight cough” a week ago.
“We must stop believing that this virus only affects the elderly,” said her sister Manon.
Manon agreed to speak to the Parisian newspaper and release a photograph of her sister to warn others about the risk of coronavirus to young people.
The French authorities yesterday said 365 people had been killed by Covid-19 over the previous 24 hours, taking the national total of those who have died in hospital to 1,696.
Julie was from Longjumeau, south of Paris and was studying at high school while living with her family.
She was first taken to her local family doctors on Tuesday and then transferred to the Necker hospital.
Manon said Julie was “bright and much-loved” and liked to “dance, sing and make people laugh”.
Her funeral will take place on Monday in her home town, attended by “10 people maximum”.
In Spain, foreign minister Arancha González Laya defended her country’s handling of the coronavirus crisis despite a surge in fatalities.
She said the response had been based on science “not feelings” and expressed optimism that the lockdown imposed on March 14 was beginning to pay off.
Her comments follow fears the spread of the virus, which claimed a record daily death toll of 738 in Spain earlier this week, was accelerated by the failure to stop thousands joining International Women’s Day marches on March 8.
Meanwhile, the BBC reported that France’s President Emmanuel Macron has told European leaders that the political fallout from the coronavirus crisis could imperil the EU.
