Paris police head Didier Lallement has come under severe criticism both from politicians and medical staff after he said that COVID-19 patients became ill after ignoring the rules of the lockdown
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd April, 2020) Paris police head Didier Lallement has come under severe criticism both from politicians and medical staff after he said that COVID-19 patients became ill after ignoring the rules of the lockdown.
"It's not necessary to be sanctioned to understand that those who are today in hospitals are those who have not followed the [rules] of the lockdown. There is a very simple correlation," Lallement said Friday on the air of the French BFMTV broadcaster.
The police chief was commenting on a highway operation, which was aimed at preventing the French from traveling on spring vacation, as the country is on its third week of complete lockdown.
Lallement has been slammed by medical personnel and the members of various political parties.
A member of Emmanuel Macron's En Marche party, Aurelien Tache, expressed his dissatisfaction with the actions of the current police chief.
"Authority is not brutality and maintaining order is not a moral judgment of citizens. Besides the dubious and disputed methods, perfect Lallement regularly breaches his duty of discretion. For how much longer?" he wrote on Twitter.
Lallement later offered his apologies for the statement, "undermining the message of unity and brotherhood."
France has been one of the most severely affected countries from the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak on the European continent. As of Friday, the number of confirmed cases in France is approaching 60,000, including 5,387 fatalities, according to statistics compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
