The French authorities on Saturday stepped up checks at airports and road tolls to enforce the ban on travel in the face of a “critical” epidemic situation.
• Read also: All the developments of the pandemic
Three departments, Rhône, Aube and Nièvre have been subject since midnight Friday to the restrictive measures already in force in 16 departments, including Paris and its region. On the program: no trips over 10 km without exemption, no leaving the territory without a compelling reason, shops closed and half-classes in high school. But unlike other European countries, the government has decided to keep schools open because of the risk of dropping out of school and of mental problems among confined students.
At the same time, 24 other departments are under increased vigilance. In the rest of the country, a curfew is in effect from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Everywhere, bars, restaurants, cultural places are closed.
While the third wave of COVID-19 continues to rise, leaving the country in a “critical” situation, according to Prime Minister Jean Castex, the authorities are stepping up checks at airports and tolls.
Saturday, Gare Montparnasse in Paris, “a dozen teams are mobilized against two to three in normal times, explains to AFP a police captain, who specifies that the controls will be accentuated” at rush hour “.
On Thursday, the head of state Emmanuel Macron had indicated that the coming weeks would be “difficult”.
A defense council is to be held Wednesday evening to decide on a possible tougher sanctions.
Regarding a further postponement of the regional and departmental elections scheduled for June 13 and 20, the executive indicated that it would comply “strictly” with the opinion of the scientific council, which must in principle submit its recommendations to the government on Sunday.
The number of patients in intensive care rose to 4,766 Friday evening, approaching the peak of the second wave in the fall (4,900). The bar of 200,000 new weekly cases has been crossed. A total of 94,302 people have died since the start of the epidemic.
Pushed by the English variant, considered more contagious and more virulent, the epidemic progressed almost everywhere in France in March.
In terms of vaccination, 7.5 million people received at least one injection, of which 2.6 million received two doses. France has therefore exceeded 10 million injections.
And the Minister for Industry, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, announced Saturday on Europe 1 that nearly 3 million additional doses would arrive next week in the country.