A pastor whose church service has been blamed for sparking a huge wave of Covid-19 infections in France apologised today as countries across Europe continued to struggle to slow the rising death toll from the disease. Thiebault Geyer said he wanted to say “sorry to God for my selfishness” after officials confirmed that around 2,500 of his parishioners have contracted coronavirus. At least 17 of those have died after a mass outbreak of the virus among the thousands who attended a week-long gathering at the pastor’s Christian Open Door church in the eastern city of Mulhouse in February. Pastor Geyer admitted he had not taken its threat seriously enough. “I would like to apologise,” he said. “Sorry to have taken this crisis lightly. Sorry to have read all the articles which tried to alert us. I couldn’t listen. I’m sorry to God for my selfishness.” He said he was now conducting services only online. France announced a record daily death toll of 499 yesterday. President Emmanuel Macron tried to fight off criticism of his government’s failure to provide more masks and respirators. “When we fight a battle, we must be united to win it and those who are already trying to hold trials when we have not won the war are irresponsible,” he said. “The time will come for accountability,” he added, as he ordered a tripling of domestic mask production by the end of April to 10 million and production of 10,000 extra respirators by mid-May. Meanwhile the Netherlands has become the latest country to extend its lockdown, to April 28, with Prime Minister Mark Rutte saying that the curbs “seem to start working, but it is too early to draw conclusions”. He added: “Experts tell us that the spread is slowing… Hold on and stick to the rules.” In Spain, health bosses were frantically working to add to the number of intensive care units in hospitals which are quickly filling up in the country’s hardest-hit regions. The country counted on 5,779 intensive care beds before the crisis and 5,607 were filled as of yesterday. In the capital, Madrid, the first intensive care units were finished today in a huge field hospital that is planned to hold 5,500 patients when completed. Meanwhile, Spanish authorities are bringing into the country 1,500 purchased ventilator machines and asking local manufacturers to ramp up production, with some creative solutions employed, such as snorkeling masks repurposed as breathing masks. In Italy’s hotspot region of Lombardy, the number of coronavirus patients in intensive care units yesterday dropped for the first time since the beginning of the epidemic. Source
