Paris braced for maximum restriction amid alarming number of COVID-19 cases
Paris:
Paris was preparing to be placed on high coronavirus alert on Sunday as alarming Covid-19 infection figures seemed to leave the French government only the choice to tighten restrictions in and around the capital.
Parisian bars and cafes are threatened with complete closure on Monday after Minister of Health Olivier Veran announced that only an improvement in Covid-19 infection rates could prevent such a measure.
If recent trends hold true “we won’t have a choice,” he warned Thursday, saying new restrictions would mean “more family reunions, more parties and a complete closure of bars.”
But a reprieve seems unlikely after France reported 16,972 new cases of the coronavirus on Saturday alone, the highest daily number since the country began widespread testing.
Figures from the regional health agency ARS show new cases of coronavirus remaining above 250 per 100,000 inhabitants in Paris, a threshold triggering the maximum alert protocol that has already hit the cities of southern Aix-en -Provence and Marseille and their surroundings, as well as the French overseas territory of Guadeloupe.
“There is no justification for the denial,” said the director of the ARS for the Paris region, Aurélien Rousseau, on Sunday. “The numbers are what they are, and they weigh heavily,” he tweeted.
“We are French, we love to drink”
Home Secretary Gerald Darmanin has acknowledged that the impending closure of bars and cafes would be “hard” for all concerned.
“We are French, we love to drink, eat, live, smile and kiss each other,” he told LCI and Europe 1 broadcasters on Sunday.
“But we also do it because people want it,” he added.
BFM television published a poll on Sunday indicating that 61% of residents of Paris and its suburbs were in favor of a complete closure of bars, which are currently allowed to remain open until 10 p.m.
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, told reporters on Sunday that “this is not a concluded agreement, there is still work in progress, we are still talking”. But she also admitted that the health situation was “very serious”.
The government said it would primarily target establishments that “serve alcoholic drinks without food.”
Restaurateurs are still hoping they can avoid a similar fate, at least for now.
Health officials are evaluating a proposal submitted by restaurants for voluntary restrictions – including recording their customers’ home addresses and limiting the number of people at each table – before submitting their recommendations to the government.
Other large French cities, including Lille, Lyon, Grenoble and Toulouse, are also approaching the maximum alert threshold and measures similar to those in the capital could also be reserved for them.
The employers’ organization UMIH, which represents cafes, bars, hotels, restaurants, brasseries and nightclubs, has warned that 15% of the 220,000 French establishments in the sector are at risk of bankruptcy due to viral restrictions, with up to 250,000 employees facing the unemployment.
The government has said it will take all necessary precautions to avoid a new state of emergency that would require a widespread lockdown like the one imposed at the height of the outbreak, from mid-March to mid-May.
The country’s total death toll from Covid-19 stands at 32,198 after recording 49 additional deaths on Saturday.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
