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Paris and its suburbs could be in the highest alert zone due to the coronavirus epidemic on Monday if epidemic rates do not drop over the weekend, the French health minister said. Olivier Véran indicated that the classification could temporarily drastically reduce social contact for Paris residents: family vacations, parties, bars would be completely closed.
The head of the ministry stressed that the decision has not yet been made, the government will consult with the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and the political leaders of the region on Sunday night. Experts say that it is difficult to imagine that the indicators will become a downtrend in the next few days.
In the metropolitan agglomeration, the three most important epidemiological indicators have exceeded the maximum alert level in the last 24 hours, according to the government.
There are more than 250 infected people for every 100,000 inhabitants (263 on Thursday) and more than a hundred in the age group at risk over 65 years. Between 30 and 35 percent of hospital intensive care units have coronavirus patients. For hospitals, the critical level is 30 percent.
If this serious situation, which has been going on for a few hours, is confirmed in the coming days, we will have no choice but to classify Paris and its surroundings as a high-alert zone, stressed Olivier Véran.
The minister also drew attention to the fact that in five other major cities, Lille, Lyon, Grenoble, Toulouse and Saint-Etienne, the situation has also become very worrying in recent days. If the restrictions imposed so far do not have the desired effect, we will also list these cities in a high-alert zone next week, he added.
Without prior consultation with local decision-makers, the government declared the south of Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, as well as the island of Guadeloupe, a high-alert zone last week, sparking strong protests locally, for what other cities are more cautious. .
The minister noted that the large southern cities of Marseille, Nice and Bordeaux have seen an improvement in recent days, but “the spread of the virus is still very high”, with the number of people infected per 100,000 inhabitants still exceeding the 200.
According to an official from the Ministry of Health, in the last 24 hours, about 14,000 new coronavirus infections have been registered again throughout the country, after almost 13,000 the day before.
The daily number of cases has been very high for nearly two weeks, at 13,970 on Thursday, bringing the number of confirmed infections to 577,505 since the outbreak began.
The positive test rate stagnated at 7.6 percent for three days, but was only 4 percent at the beginning of the month.
The death toll has risen by 63 in the last 24 hours to 32,019, after 65 the day before and 57 on Tuesday. The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care units has risen by 18, with more than 1,200 people in the country currently hooked up to a ventilator.
(Cover image: MTI / EPA / Mohamed Badra)
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