France has decided against imposing a third coronavirus nationwide lockdown and instead ordered tighter controls at its borders, increased police action against curfew breakers and a greater adherence to working from home.
Key points:
- After almost 24,000 new infections were detected in the past day, France’s total caseload has rise to 3.15 million
- Nearly 2,900 of the 25,800 hospitalised COVID patients are in intensive care
- About 1.45 million people have been vaccinated so far
Prime Minister Jean Castex said the public health crisis remained of great concern as France’s death toll jumped above 75,000, the seventh-highest in the world.
“We know the grave impact [of a lockdown]. Tonight, looking at the data of the past few days, we consider that we can still give ourselves a chance to avoid one,” Mr Castex said in a televised statement.
Speaking shortly after President Emmanuel Macron conferred with senior ministers about the crisis, Mr Castex said that from Sunday all arrivals into France from outside the European Union would be banned, except for essential travel.
All visitors from EU nations, except those entering by land like cross-border workers and truckers, would need to show a negative PCR test.
The requirement had already applied to non-EU arrivals since mid-January.
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Some 62,000 people currently arrive in French airports and seaports from other EU countries every week, according to Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari.
“Our duty is to do all we can to avoid a new lockdown, the coming days will be crucial,” Mr Castex said.
The Prime Minister also said non-food shopping centres with a surface area of more than 20,000 square metres would be closed, home-working rules would be reinforced and that police would crack down on secret parties and illegal openings of restaurants.
Experts think France is heading for third lockdown
Less than a week ago, the Government’s top scientific adviser on the epidemic said that France probably needed to move into a third lockdown, perhaps as early as the February school holidays, because of the circulation of new variants of the virus.
“It will probably be necessary to move towards confinement,” he said.
“There is an emergency the faster you take a decision, the more effective it is and can be of limited duration.”
The French health agency on Saturday reported 23,924 new cases in the previous 24 hours and 321 new coronavirus deaths, taking the French death toll to 72,877 and the national case total to 3.15 million.
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The number of hospitalised COVID patients stood at 25,800, of whom nearly 2,900 were in intensive care.
A shortage in vaccine supplies from pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Moderna has resulted in a sharp slowdown in France’s vaccine deployment.
The health ministry said in a statement that 1.45 million people had been vaccinated so far.
But the stubbornly high new rates for infections, hospitalisations and deaths have fuelled fears France may need another full lockdown, which would be the third, inflicting yet more devastation on businesses and daily lives.
Industry Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said she was “reasonably confident” France would meet its target of vaccinating 15 million people by the end of June, adding more than 1.9 million vaccine doses had been received to date.
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A Government spokesman told the broadcaster France 3 that “all scenarios are on the table”.
“The next few days will be decisive,” he added, stressing a meeting of French leaders which will take place on Wednesday.
Some doctors meanwhile said that a lockdown was all but inevitable.
“We are moving towards a lockdown,” said Denis Malvy, a member of France’s Scientific Council and head of the infectious diseases department in a Bordeaux hospital.
Karine Lacombe, head of infectious diseases at a Paris hospital, said: “A lockdown seems certain. The only question now is when it will happen.”
France went into lockdown twice in 2020, the first time between March and May and then October to December.
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ABC/wires