[Reporter] Emmanuel Macron opened his official visit to Italy on February 26
with a big kiss for prime minister Giuseppe Conte.
Then a little nose swipe and he was off for a 20-minute round of handshaking in the streets of Naples.
Even though the Italian coronavirus outbreak was already big news there.
Then, here he is in Paris on March 9th.
On the day neighbouring Italy was locked down.
He is strolling with his wife on the Champs-Élysées.
Telling restaurant patrons he wanted to send a message of confidence to the French economy.
In retrospect, not such a great idea.
France is now among the worst-performing countries at handling the outbreak.
So in France, the French president is like a
king.
Like you say, he's a Republican king
[Reporter] Mathieu Magnaudeix is one of France's top investigative journalists.
It's very clear that they didn't grasp how important this situation was.
It's a failure of a whole system.
It's a failure of a French executive power and especially the president.
[Reporter] Occasionally the president was challenged.
Like on this early visit to a French hospital.
The doctor told him the public hospitals were effectively on fire like the famous Notre Dame Cathedral
and needed his immediate attention.
Three very important month where we could have helped prevent this pandemic
from getting bigger and bigger in France
so there's a lot of anger in France right now about what the government.
[Reporter] Well it wasn't all the government's fault.
When Macron finally went on TV on March 12 to announce he was closing schools
and calling for social distancing because France was now at war with COVID-19.
The very next day the public flooded into Parisian terraces and courtyards
to enjoy the sunshine with their friends and relatives.
They seemed to pay no attention to the possibility that France could share Italy's horrible fate.
Dr. Catherine Hill is a leading French epidemiologist.
There was no reason why it would not be the same everywhere else.
People just hope for the best and they talked about the Italian scenario
as if it was you know western movie made by Italians or something like exotic.
It's ridiculous.
The same causes tend to have the same consequences.
[Reporter] Sure enough the consequences have arrived.
There is a tidal wave of COVID-19 patients overwhelming the hospitals.
Eric Murray is an intensive care doctor.
We estimate that we have in France around 5,000 of ICU beds
and actually there is more than 7,000 patients requiring ICU.
So we have actually more patients than France can treat in ICU beds.
[Reporter] As the hospitals in Paris and eastern France were overwhelmed
there was a military operation to transport patients to less busy hospitals in other regions
and in other countries.
So they have to send patient in the South of France by plane
by train in a western part of France.
And they sent also patient in Germany in Switzerland in Luxembourg
because it was over overwhelmed.
[Reporter] The comparisons to other countries are astonishing.
Neighbouring Germany performed five times the per capita number of tests compared to France.
Now France has six times the per capita number of German deaths from COVID-19.
Fifteen times greater than Canada.
France claims to have a low number of confirmed cases.
Epidemiologists don't believe it.
My estimate is that you have to multiply the published fingers by something like 50.
So there's an enormous, enormous gap.
[Reporter] There was a scandal in France when it turned out that a much discussed stockpile of masks
and other protective equipment was far smaller than promised.
So President Macron toured a mass production line and promised more were on the way.
Intensive care doctors say they will refuse to work without proper equipment.
I will not say to my nurses and to my residents to see the patient
if we have not the protection to take care of the patient.
It's out of question.
Even as France is flying patients to other countries
the government is announcing plans to return to normal.
Experts doubt that is possible without a massive increase in testing.
So half of the combinations are caused by individuals who do not know they are infectious.
There are millions of people in France who are positive right now.
So how do you release the quarantine?
[Reporter] Like Canada, France has a shockingly high proportion of deaths in nursing homes.
Apparently President Macron did not see that coming early on
when he joined the dinner table at a Paris seniors residence
and paid no attention to social distancing to protect the residents.
To mark the Easter holiday
Paris's Catholic Archbishop mounted the stairs at the Sacre-Coeur Basilica
to pronounce a blessing on the city.
The residents are likely praying that the country's performance does not get even worse
than its lamentable record so far.
Terence Mckenna, CBC News, Toronto
