COVID-19: The French government ordered the containment of Paris and other regions for a month from Friday

French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced this Thursday Another month-long lockdown in Paris and other regions to fight COVID-19 outbreak which has hospitals close to collapse.

Non-essential businesses will close again and inter-regional travel will be restricted in affected areas, but schools will remain open and outdoor exercise will be allowed within a 10-kilometer radius of the house.

Castex indicated that the measure affects 16 departments, representing nearly a third of the national population: eight departments of Ile-de-France (the region which includes the capital), five departments of Hauts-de-France and another of Alpes-Maritimes, Seine- Maritimes and Eure.

The new restrictions that will apply since midnight on Friday, seek to limit the advance of the coronavirus, especially in the northern part of the country, since “the progression of the epidemic is accelerating remarkably,” Castex said at the press conference.

President Emmanuel Macron had anticipated Wednesday in front of a group of mayors of Ile de France, during a meeting by videoconference, that there would be “brake measures” different from those which have been taken so far for ” take into account the realities “of the area., in which 12 of the country’s 67 million inhabitants live.

Prior to this virtual meeting, Macron was visiting a hospital in the city of Poissy, where he told healthcare staff he was facing the increase in the number of patients who will continue to take “Pragmatic, proportionate, territorialized decisions”. According to him, the objective is to “lower the epidemic pressure” to “prevent the French from ending up at the doors of hospitals”.

Although infections and hospitalizations are decreasing in the elderly, due to the effect of vaccines on this population, one of the effects of the new variants is the increase in the number of patients who develop severe forms and must enter intensive care units.

On Wednesday, 25,314 people were hospitalized in France for COVID-19, including 4,219 in the ucis, a level close to 4,900 at the peak of the second wave in mid-November.

France reactivates the AstraZeneca vaccine

During the press conference, Castex also announced that France will reapply the AstraZeneca vaccine to its population from this Friday, after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Friday defended its safety and effectiveness.

“The AstraZeneca vaccine is effective against severe forms of the disease, but it is also a safe and secure vaccine. It is not associated with an overall increased risk of thrombosis ”said Castex, who will be vaccinated with this Friday “to show you can be confident.

The head of government recalled that according to the EMA, the effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing hospitalizations and deaths is much higher than the risk of suffering harm while receiving it.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) defended on Thursday that the AstraZeneca vaccine continues to be “safe and effective” in vaccination against covid-19, while stressing that He has not been able to rule out its relationship to some “very rare” cases of blood clotting associated with thrombosis and will continue to investigate.

After nearly two weeks of investigation, its safety committee (PRAC) was unable to find scientific evidence linking the cases of thromboembolism reported in some European countries and the AstraZeneca vaccine as a direct side effect, suspended by several. States as a precaution. episodes of thrombosis in people who have received it.

With information from AFP and EFE

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