• Direct: last minute of the coronavirus

Health personnel in France will receive bonuses to compensate for their efforts in the coronavirus crisis, which in many cases will exceed 2,000 euros, within an emergency budget package that has been corrected to increase it from the initial 45,000 million euros to 110,000 million.

Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced that those who work in health centers in the thirty departments most affected by the epidemic (there are a hundred in France) will receive a premium of 1,500 euros in May, just like those in the rest of the country they take care of patients of the COVID-19.

To that premium, which will be exempt from taxes and social contributions, the overtime they have done will be added, with a 50% bonus, instead of the usual 25%, which will mean an average of 600 euros, said the owner of Health, Olivier Véran, in an appearance at the end of the Council of Ministers.

The rest of the health professionals will have a premium of 600 euros and the remuneration of overtime with the same 50% bonus.

The cost to the State will be 1,300 million euros, a part of the 8,000 million extraordinary expenses for health (which will mean an increase of 7%) to be included in the corrective budget bill processed in Parliament with character urgent from Friday.

Philippe indicated that another 4,000 million euros will be dedicated to the purchase of necessary medical equipment to face the epidemic, such as masks.

Along with the health workers, officials who are involved in public service missions during the crisis will also be rewarded with an extraordinary bonus of up to 1,000 euros, free of taxes and contributions.

At the same time, more than four million families in precarious situations will be beneficiaries of an "exceptional solidarity aid" that will translate in most cases into 150 euros per household and an additional 100 euros for each child.

The main item of the new emergency plan of 110,000 million euros designed by the Executive is the 30,000 million euros for the postponement or suppression of taxes and contributions of companies that have seen their activity reduced or suspended.

24,000 million have also been foreseen for the 8.7 million workers who are currently partially unemployed (ERTE), very far from the 8,500 million estimated a month ago.

The corrected budget for 2020, which must be approved next week, is based on the hypothesis of an 8% recession, a figure that, as acknowledged by the Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, is provisional given the uncertainty.

The public deficit will skyrocket to 9% of gross domestic product (GDP), up from 3% last year, and public debt to 115%, compared to 98.1% at the end of 2019.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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