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The French government has ordered the closure of bars and cafes in Paris for two weeks starting Tuesday after declaring the city and its closest suburbs as “high alert” areas for coronavirus infections.
“Today we are entering a new phase,” said Didier Lallement, the Paris police chief, describing the restrictions, including a ban on student parties, the closure of adult pools and a reduction in the number of shoppers allowed in shopping centers and department stores.
“We are incessantly adapting to the reality of the epidemic, the reality of the virus,” he said.
Marseille and Aix-en-Provence in southern France, as well as the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, have already been placed in the same “high alert” coronavirus category after an increase in infections and hospitalizations in recent weeks.
However, the government has decided to grant a pardon to French restaurants, currently closed in Marseille, and will impose stricter measures to allow them to reopen or remain open even in areas of high infection.
President Emmanuel Macron has said France must learn to “live with” the virus and says he is determined to avoid another national shutdown such as the two-month shutdown in the spring that triggered a deep economic recession.
Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, said that the capital’s economy was highly dependent on international trade and tourism and had been greatly affected by the absence of visitors, so it is essential to maintain the democratic, cultural, economic and social life of the city as much as possible.
Aurélien Rousseau, regional health director, said 3,500 new cases of coronavirus are registered every day in the Paris area, which now has more than 200 active infection “clusters”.
“The impact on hospitals is real and is getting worse every day,” he said, noting that 36% of intensive care beds were already occupied by Covid-19 patients, which would increase to 50% in two weeks. He added that 115 of the 700 nursing homes in the region had at least one resident ill with the virus.
Health Minister Olivier Véran said last week that Lille, Lyon, Grenoble, Toulouse and Saint-Etienne could also cross infection and hospitalization thresholds this week that would bring them into the “high alert” category.
On Sunday night, the national health department said 1,335 patients were being treated for Covid-19 in intensive care units of French hospitals. The number of new cases confirmed by tests in the previous 24 hours was 12,565. An additional 32 deaths were reported, bringing the official death toll since the start of the pandemic to 32,230.
“A strengthened health protocol will be implemented that will be applied in the high and high alert zones and will allow restaurants to remain open,” the prime minister’s office said. Other details to be announced later Monday may include temperature checks on clients and a requirement to record them for tracking.
University lecture halls may function at half capacity from now on, due to high levels of infections, mostly asymptomatic, among students.
