France: How coronavirus pandemic is highlighting economic dichotomy?

The sharp contrast between the have's and the have-not's in France isbeing highlighted by the coronavirus pandemic.

While billionaires are isolatingthemselves at luxurious hiding spotsloacted in the Mediterranean coast during the coronavirus outbreak, residents in deprived and crowded areas of France are facing a surge in deaths, along withunrest on the streets.

French police was accused of brutality andracism after hostilities erupted this week in thenorthern suburbs ofParis.

Protestors setalightcars and trash cans on roads, hurlingfirecrackerswhilepoliceracedto control the crowds.

According to several activist organizations and unions in the country, including Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions and Aid to Citizens (ATTAC), theban imposed on allnon-essentialbusiness imposed in France until May 11, along with a requirement for apermission slipto venture outside, has had the harshest impact on people living in poorer, more densely populated neighborhoods.

A report byATTAC stated''social inequalities, already glaring, are reinforced by the management of the coronavirus and will explode with the economic and social crisis to come."

Interestingly, front line essential workers included those people in the working class neighborhoods.

However, wealthy residents at one of the country's most exclusive gated communities on the French Riviera have been embroiled in controversy after it emerged that some had access to antibody testing, despite the strain on hospitals and nursing homes across the country.

There have now been more than 120,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases along with22,000 deaths in France.