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PARIS: France will have to live with the coronavirus at least until next summer, President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday (October 23).
Macron, who spoke during a visit to a hospital in Pointoise, near Paris, said there were no plans at this stage to reduce curfews intended to prevent the spread of the virus, but that curfews could even be extended.
“When I listen to the scientists, I see that the projections are, at best, until next summer,” he said, adding that it was too early to say whether France was heading towards new full or partial blockades.
The coronavirus is spreading through France faster than at the peak of the first wave in the spring, a government scientific adviser said on Friday.
France reported 42,032 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, breaking the cumulative count of 1,000,000, a grim milestone for the government as it and other European capitals struggle to keep their economies open.
France has announced plans to extend the curfew to 38 more administrative departments starting at midnight on Friday. In all, two-thirds of the nation’s 67 million people will be confined indoors each night from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. through early December.
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