“Reinforced surveillance”: France strengthens controls to avoid a new coronavirus containment

The Prime Minister of France, Jean Castex, gave this Saturday the slogan of strengthen controls so that the restrictions in force are strictly observed to contain the spread of the coronavirus and thus be able to avoid a third home confinement nationwide.

This was Castex’s message, according to his cabinet, during a videoconference meeting with the prefects (government delegates) of the 20 departments which have been under “enhanced surveillance” since Thursday due to its high incidence rate, more than 250 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in one week.

In these 20 departments, including those of the Parisian region and those of other big cities like Marsella, Lille or Toulon, and what do they suppose around the 40% of the country’s population, if the situation worsens in the next few days, the device will harden on a case-by-case basis, especially with a home confinement during the weekend.

This type of quarantine has already been in effect since this weekend in the cities of Nice and Dunkirk, as well as in its areas of influence, which will last until Monday at 6 a.m. to try to contain the incidence rate, which is particularly high.

The Prime Minister demanded that the prefects apply actions “of an immediate nature”, such as the optimization of the vaccination campaign, the extension of tests with saliva samples in schools and the respect by companies of the rule of recourse to teleworking when possible.

On his Twitter account, Castex pointed out that the ultimate goal is not to have to achieve a new confinement of a general nature, in a message containing a implicit criticism against the mayor of Paris led by socialist Anne Hidalgo.

“The question is not to be for or against confinement, but to do everything possible to avoid it”, he pointed out.

He thus recalled the request made Thursday by the deputy for Hidalgo, Emmanuel Gregoire, so that the government will decree a three-week lockdown in the French capital, in order to rapidly reduce infections instead of keeping the strong restrictions in place since the end of October.

After the second home confinement which lasted from there until mid-December, social life in France remains extremely limited: bars, cafes, restaurants, cinemas, theaters, performance halls, museums, gymnasiums or stadiums remain closed and there is no reopening date on the horizon.

In addition, throughout France, there is a curfew between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. everyday.

Infections have been increasing for a week, so that the downward trend that started since the beginning of February has reversed. Thursday and Friday the number of daily cases exceeded 25,000, after Wednesday’s peak 31,519, the highest number since November.

In addition, on Friday, France officially exceeded 86,000 deaths from the coronavirus.

In contrast, the daily figures of hospitalizations and intensive care people with COVID-19 were stable on Friday with 25,130 hospitalized patients, including 3,445 in intensive care.

(With information from EFE and Europa Press)

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