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French authorities arrested seven people selling fake negative COVID-19 test certificates. The group was offering certificates to passengers at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Authorities arrested six men and a woman as part of the operation. The group was found with more than 200 fake certificates on their smartphones. Prosecutors say the certificates would have sold for up to 300 euros.
The authorities discovered the fake certificates after noticing something fake between one of them. The BBC reports that the arrests came after a certificate from a passenger attempting to travel to Ethiopia was found to be false.
France reintroduced a series of measures after an increase in cases. The country was soon struck by the deadly virus. But things got better afterwards and the country started to slowly reduce the measures. Now, an increase in infections across Europe has reinstated many of these measures.
France is one of many European countries that are currently trying to prevent the situation from getting worse. In recent days, France, Sweden, the Czech Republic and many others have seen an increase, forcing previous blockades and measures to return.
Some airlines in the country now require passengers to show a certificate to prove they don’t have the virus. Many of the passengers are unaware of the measures, so the group attempted to offer them at the airport.
AFP quoted an airport source as saying the seven were behind an unlicensed business like baggage wrappers. But this was affected when the number of passengers started to decline at the airport due to the situation.
France recorded a record 60,486 new confirmed cases on Friday, according to France24. The number of cases puts the country at 1.66 million now. France is now in fifth place on the list of most confirmed cases, just behind Russia.
New blocking measures
Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron announced new blocking measures for the country. The new restrictions include things like paperwork when leaving home and being allowed to leave the house only to go to work, school, for medical appointments, and to provide care for loved ones. Travel between regions is currently prohibited.
The number of cases on Friday is up from Thursday’s previous case record. Yesterday the country recorded more than 58,000 cases. On Friday, the Ministry of Health reported 828 new deaths from the virus. On Thursday, the ministry reported 363 deaths in hospitals. Spain and the UK also saw an increase in cases after the removal of some measures. The two once dropped out of the top ten but are now sixth and eighth on the list.
Cases around the world
The new measures will remain until at least 1 December. Macron at the time said the new lockdown was urgent due to the risk of hospitals being overwhelmed. France recorded more than 36,000 infections in the 24 hours preceding the announcement of the new measures.
The number of cases worldwide is now over 49 million. So far 32.3 million people have recovered from the virus. 1.24 million lost their lives.
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