France’s Covid-19 death toll has surpassed 100,000, making nation 8th in the world to reach the bleak milestone

PARIS (AP) — France has become the third country in Europe after the U.K. and Italy to reach the unwanted milestone of 100,000 COVID-19-related deaths as new infections and deaths surged due to virus variants. The country of 67 million is the eighth nation in the world to reach the mark after a year of hospital tensions, on-and-off lockdowns and personal losses that have left families nationwide grieving the pandemic’s impact. France added 300 new deaths Thursday to the previous day’s tally of 99,777, bringing the total to 100,077 deaths. Lionel Petitpas, president of the association “Victims of COVID-19,” told the Associated Press that the number of 100,000 deaths is “an important threshold.”