PARIS (AP) — France’s COVID-19 death toll is expected to pass 100,000 on Thursday after a year of hospital tensions, on-and-off lockdowns and personal loss that have left families nationwide grieving the pandemic’s unending, devastating toll. The country of 67 million will be the eighth in the world to reach the symbolic mark, and the third in Europe after the United Kingdom and Italy. The cumulative death toll since the start of the epidemic totaled 99,777 on Wednesday evening. In recent days, French health authorities have reported about 300 new virus-related deaths daily. France entered a partial lockdown at the beginning of April, as new cases were surging and hospitals getting close to saturation.
