PARIS | French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday an extension to the entire metropolitan territory of measures to fight Covid and the closure of schools for three weeks, in an attempt to stem the third wave of the disease.
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These rules for the whole territory provide for a curfew from 7 p.m. (5 p.m. GMT), the closure of certain businesses and movement restrictions within a radius of 10 kilometers around your home. Beyond this perimeter, a justification will be required.
These measures will apply from Tuesday, at the end of the Easter weekend, during which the French will be able to travel.
“We have entered a speed race,” said the French president in a long-awaited televised address, as the country faces a sharp increase in hospitalizations and the number of cases, in particular due to the spread of the disease. variant known as British.
This variant “made an epidemic appear within the epidemic,” the president said.
Regarding schools, he also announced that nurseries and schools will be closed for a total of three weeks, and colleges and high schools for four weeks, from Tuesday.
To limit the educational impact, the government has decided to standardize the dates of spring break across the country, from April 12 to 26. This means that in the end, the youngest will only lose one or two weeks of lessons, before starting the school year on April 26, and on May 3 in middle and high schools.
“The virus is circulating in schools, but no more than elsewhere”, declared the president, adding that “the school is not negotiable”, recalling that France was one of the “rare countries” which had kept its schools open since the start of the September school year.
“We are choosing trust, responsibility” estimated the president, announcing that he was betting on partial reopening of certain places of culture or café terraces.
“From mid-May, we will start to open again with strict rules, certain places of culture, we will authorize under conditions the opening of terraces and we will build between mid-May and the beginning of summer, a calendar of gradual reopening for culture, sport, leisure, events and our cafes and restaurants, ”he said.
The French president, who has regularly arbitrated for several months between health and economic and social imperatives in the fight against the epidemic, also announced new reinforcements for caregivers and a target of 10,000 resuscitation beds, while more than 5,000 are currently busy.
Regarding vaccination, he said he was “deeply sorry” that some elderly people who are priority to be vaccinated are still not, while the death toll is approaching 100,000.
He also promised an expansion of vaccination to all people over 60 on April 16, then to all over 50 on May 15.
People under 50 will follow in mid-June and “by the end of the summer, all French people over 18 who wish to be able to be vaccinated,” he added.
“Our main challenge is to accelerate again and again” on vaccination, he insisted, maintaining his goal of having vaccinated all adults who want it by the end of the summer.
“At every stage of this epidemic, we could tell ourselves that we could have done better, that we made mistakes. All of this is true, ”admitted the president.
“But I know one thing: we held on, we learned, and we got better each time,” he also said.