Paris (AFP)
Two doctors have died of coronavirus in recent days in France, one in the North and the second in Seine-Saint-Denis, bringing to nine the number of practitioners who died from Covid-19 in France, do we say learned Tuesday from concordant sources.
General practitioner aged 65, Kabkéo Souvanlasy died Friday at Robert-Ballanger hospital in Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis), where he had been in intensive care for a month, according to his entourage.
The resuscitation team "did everything" to save him, testified to AFP his cousin, Manola Souvanlasy-Abhay, also a doctor, in Paris.
Of Laotian origin, Doctor Souvanlasy had arrived in France in 1975 with his family. A political refugee, this father had studied medicine in Rouen and had settled in 1987 in Sevran, a popular city in the Parisian suburbs.
Philippe Lerche, 64, died on Sunday in the North. According to the Hauts-de-France Regional Health Agency (ARS), which announced his death, he worked as a general practitioner in Villers-Outréaux, near Cambrai.
"On behalf of all the ARS teams, I would like to send my sincere condolences to his family", responded in a press release the Director General of the ARS Etienne Champion, welcoming "the courage and commitment of the professionals de santé "facing Covid-19.
In total, nine practicing doctors died from coronavirus in France, mainly in the Grand-Est and Ile-de-France. Several other health professionals also died, including a nurse and two caregivers.
According to Public Health France, several thousand contaminations have been reported among health professionals and employees of medico-social establishments, on the front line facing the epidemic due to their exposure to infected patients.
© 2020 AFP