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France will re-enter a national “lockdown” starting Friday to limit the spread of the new coronavirus, President Emmanuel Macron said in a speech to the nation on Wednesday, Reuters and AFP reported.
“We have decided that we must re-enter the isolation that stopped the virus since Friday. The measure is valid for the entire national territory,” the head of state said in a televised speech.
The new measures he announced, which will go into effect on Friday, mean that people will have to stay at home except for the purchase of basic necessities, trips to the doctor or daily hours of exercise in the open air. People will need statements about their own responsibility to leave their homes.
The new lock will be valid until at least December 1. However, Macron said that if the health situation improves in two weeks, then the government will evaluate the possibility of reopening certain stores considered non-essential, according to Agerpres.
People will still be able to go to work if the employer finds it impossible to work from home and, unlike the isolation earlier in March, most schools will remain open.
Nonessential bars, restaurants and shops will be closed in France starting Friday as part of the new “lockdown,” Macron said.
“The virus is circulating at a speed that not even the most pessimistic estimates anticipated. Like all of our neighbors, we are overwhelmed by the sudden increase in the spread of the virus,” Macron said in his speech.
“We are all in the same situation: overwhelmed by a second wave that we know will be harder, more lethal than the first,” he added.
France reported 523 new coronavirus deaths in a single day on Tuesday, the highest daily figure in April.
More than 3,000 COVID-19 patients in resuscitation
The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized for resuscitation surpassed 3,000 in France on Wednesday, a level that has not been recorded since the beginning of May, according to official data, reports AFP.
This Tuesday, three hundred and seventy-two new hospitalizations for resuscitation (or intensive care) were registered, according to the database of the French Institute of Public Health. Taking into account the number of exits, the number of patients currently in intensive care has increased by 127 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 3,036.
As of Tuesday, more than half of the current resuscitation capacity is occupied by COVID-19 patients. France has a total of about 5,800 beds in resuscitation, a level that public authorities are trying to increase in the coming days.
More generally, 2,821 additional people were hospitalized for COVID-19 on Tuesday. More than 20,000 people are now hospitalized in French hospitals due to the new coronavirus.
In the context of the severe deterioration of all the indicators of the epidemic, President Emmanuel Macron will announce on Tuesday, at 8:00 p.m. local time, “a new stage” in the speed race against the exponential spread of COVID-19.
