France's defense chief misled nation on troops' virus safety

PARIS (AP) — France’s defense minister has admitted to misleading the nation about virus protections for air force personnel who evacuated French citizens from the hard-hit Chinese city of Wuhan and have been suspected of links to France’s first confirmed COVID-19 cluster.

The revelation Tuesday by Defense Minister Florence Parly to a Senate investigating committee is a further blow to the credibility of French President Emmanuel Macron's government as it battles rebounding infections.

Health Minister Olivier Veran is expected to announce new restrictions on gatherings Wednesday as the numbers of virus cases and hospitalizations mount.

As China locked down the city of Wuhan in January, the French government started repatriation flights for French citizens there. One such flight returned to France from Wuhan on Jan. 31, operated by 18 military personnel based in Creil, in the Oise region north of Paris, the defense minister said.

In February, regional health authorities announced a virus cluster in the Oise region, and the first cases in France with no clear link to cases in China or Italy. Within weeks, France’s coronavirus case count had skyrocketed and the nation was in a lockdown.

With over 31,400 confirmed virus-related deaths, France has the third-highest death toll in Europe after Britain and Italy. France is now reporting about 10,000 new infections a day.

The defense minister told public broadcaster France-2 in March that all the military personnel on that evacuation flight “had been tested and confined” upon return. But as both houses of France’s parliament investigate the government’s handling of the pandemic, doubts were raised about that version of events.

A senator from the Oise region, Olivier Paccaud, pressed Parly about exactly what...