[ad_1]
Restaurant and bar owners are demonstrating in Marseille against an order from the French government: all restaurants must close on Saturday. Image: keystone
France loses control: anger after crown explosion
France has a shocking record of new infections, but many citizens are angry at the new government measures. The map of Corona in Europe is colored red.
In the crown pandemic, Germany is increasingly becoming a Gallic people in Europe. In René Goscinny’s “Asterix & Obelix” comics, it is the small town in France where life remains as it is and resists the overwhelming power of the Romans.
The town is currently the Federal Republic, at least as far as the spread of the corona virus in Europe is concerned. The second wave of the pandemic has yet to reach Germany, but 14 of the 27 EU member states are already classified as risk areas by the Robert Koch Institute. The Crown map of Europe is still in red.
Explosive number of infections in France
The situation is particularly bad in France, the country of origin of the late comic book artist Goscinny. The coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the country. The government put in place strict measures in the spring, but they were lifted in early summer. Life in France continued, just as it did before the crisis. This led to a central problem: politicians were unable to sensitize the population about distance and hygiene regulations. A great oversight that is now taking revenge.
Compared to the spring, France has significantly increased its testing capabilities. Image: keystone
The French government on Thursday reported a shocking number: 16,096 people tested positive for the coronavirus in 24 hours, about 3,400 new infections more than the previous high. At the same time, the number of people who died with an infection in one day increased by 52. Infections have skyrocketed in France since the beginning of September, with more than 140,000 new infections in the last 14 days alone.
For classification: In Germany, more than 23,000 new infections were reported in the last 14 days, on Friday they were 2,153. So in France there are almost eight times more in 24 hours. In Germany there are currently just over 22,000 acute infections, in France there are over 408,000. (Starting September 25 at 2 pm)
These figures alone show that the second wave has reached France a long time ago. The country was hit hard by the pandemic in the spring and more than 536,000 infections and more than 31,500 deaths have been reported so far.
For classification: Germany had more than 280,000 reported infections and more than 9,400 people who died from Covid 19 disease.
The government is sounding the alarm
The French government is alarmed by the sharp increase in new infections. She tightened measures on Wednesday, especially in big cities. In the most affected city of Marseille, all bars and restaurants will have to close as of Saturday. In Paris and other major cities, large events with more than a thousand participants are prohibited. This also applies to Sunday’s French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament, which had to reduce the number of spectators beforehand.
The French government is increasingly reporting risk areas with a dramatic increase in new corona infections. Source: French government
In the larger area around the southern French cities of Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, the second-highest level of corona warning now applies, as does overseas Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. If the number of infections continues to rise there, the exit restrictions threaten, as they were already enforced between March and May.
Tourists in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris: Masks are required on the streets. Image: keystone
In Paris and ten other major cities, gatherings of more than ten people in parks and squares are now prohibited. There, the prefectures can partially close bars and restaurants. A strict hygiene concept must be presented for large events with up to a thousand participants. Until now the limit was 5,000 participants.
“The situation is getting worse,” Health Minister Oliver Véran said on television on Wednesday. “Above all, the pressure on hospitals requires us to take additional measures.”
The unreason and inaction of politics
Like Spain, France reacted to the pandemic with strict measures in the spring. There were curfews, the population was only allowed to go out the door to shop and work, and at police checkpoints, people had to show their pass. With the arrival of summer came the respite from the pandemic, the number of infections also fell in France.
Emmanuel Macron in a video at the UN General Assembly: In the Corona crisis, the French president sent his ministers. Image: sda
The measures were lifted, the French government relied on a traffic light system, as used in Germany. Regional measures must be taken to respond to the foci of infection in France. Above all, President Emmanuel Macron wants to avoid a second national lockdown, also to protect the economy from further damage.
But as the economy slowly recovered from the initial lockdown, the policy failed to raise public awareness of hygiene measures. Many people in France, for the most part, continued their lives as they did before the pandemic. There were parties, the population and tourists frolicked en masse on the beaches of the French Mediterranean coast. The strict measures of spring led, especially among the younger population, to fully enjoy the freedom they had regained in summer. Human unreason was mixed with politics that he just watched.
“A lot of people don’t take it seriously”
This development is particularly evident in the Corona hotspot in Marseille. Lisa Heinemann from Berlin lived the summer in the southern French city and has also been there for the last few days. “In the summer, the corona pandemic was totally ignored here and now that the number of cases is increasing again, the measures are very radical,” he reports in an interview with t-online. “The government can’t get people to deal with Corona sensibly. Now, with the strict measures taken, the pandemic has become visible, unlike the summer. But a lot of people still don’t take it seriously. “
Despite the emergence of Corona, the bars in Marseille are still well packed. Masks are rarely used. Image: keystone
Marseille and its surroundings are the most affected by the second wave. More recently, there were 281 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants, almost six times the alert value. However, hundreds of restaurateurs protested in the port city on Friday against the announced closure of all bars and restaurants. The regional employers’ association issued a statement warning against an “economic lockdown” because gyms and other facilities are also affected.
Anger in the streets of Marseille
After the first confinement in spring, gastronomy is one thing above all: desperate. “Save our jobs, save our companies,” read a banner in front of the commercial court. “The glass is full,” said the owner of a restaurant in neighboring Aix-en-Provence, which must also close. “We were about to get back on our feet.” Several restaurateurs have announced that they will oppose the order of the central government of Paris.
Bayonne: patients queue in front of a Covid-19 test station. In France, the number of new corona infections has been increasing for weeks. Image: keystone
The president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, Renaud Muselier, wants to take legal action against the new restrictions. He sees them as “collective punishment” for the roughly 1.9 million people in the Marseille metropolitan area. French Health Minister Véran wanted to visit the hospital in Marseille’s largest city on Friday afternoon. He was symbolically booed at the rally. Véran had announced that “maximum alert” would be declared for Marseille and the overseas region of Guadeloupe.
Concern about overloading hospitals
Sectors of the population do not understand the need for stricter measures, in the summer the opening of many bars, restaurants and pubs was celebrated with euphoria. Macron praised the catering establishments as symbols of “the French spirit, our culture and art of living.” Its renewed closure fuels fears of a new national curfew. Now the president does not want to get into the line of fire of the protests, he usually sends his ministers to the front.
Prime Minister Jean Castex called on the French to take joint responsibility on television. He argued that the stricter measures could prevent another lockdown.
As in the Swiss example shown here, France also introduced a Corona app: “Stop Covid” is its name. Photo: trapezoidal
The government is particularly concerned about the health system, some hospitals were already at full capacity in the spring and Germany was receiving patients from the neighboring country. Now some hospitals are taking precautions again. In Paris hospitals, for example, they have reduced the number of operations by 20 percent, as more than 25 percent of intensive care beds in the capital are currently occupied by Covid 19 patients and it is going to create more capacity.
The key is common sense
In order not to overload hospitals, two things are necessary above all: common sense and solidarity among the population. The French government has currently lost control of the pandemic and the regional containment system has failed. Precisely because in too many places this common sense did not exist in summer.
The failure of the corona policy is not due to the measures and their severity. The French government’s ping-pong game between the confinement and the great freedom did not work because there was little understanding among the population of very strict measures, despite the alarming number of infections. And that problem still persists.
The situations in Spain and France are also warning examples for Germany, the French people in the pandemic. According to the Berlin virologist Christian Drosten, this has nothing to do with resilience. In a pandemic, that’s just luck, Drosten said in a video on Twitter. Fortunately, Germany should use it to prepare and perhaps even prevent a second wave. Not only with measurements, but above all with common sense.
Fonts used:
