French TV report uncovers illegal network of luxury restaurants opened during pandemic

A report broadcast by the French television channel M6 revealed an illegal network of luxury restaurants in Paris which was breaking regulations in the midst of a pandemic.

The scandal prompted the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, to request an investigation into the case.

An anonymous individual, identified as the organizer of a secret party, revealed that he had eaten this week “in two or three” illegal “restaurants with various ministers”, without giving further details.

The broadcast of the report prompted the French prosecution to open an investigation on Sunday, “to verify whether the parties were organized in violation of health regulations and to determine who the organizers and participants could be.”

The report, which was released Friday evening, gave as an example the existence of a secret luxury restaurant in Paris that has remained open despite measures against the coronavirus.

Restaurants in France closed at the end of October due to the pandemic.

“People who come here take off their masks,” said a staff member at one of the restaurants, also on complete anonymity. “Once you walk through the door, there is no more coronavirus,” he said.

The report also introduced the audience to a party at an elegant establishment where people do not wear masks and observe the rules of distancing.

Thus, the French Minister of the Interior instructed the Paris police headquarters to “verify the veracity of the events denounced and, if so, to prosecute the organizers and participants of these clandestine dinners”.

The report put French society on a war footing, which protested on social media under the tag “We want names” (#OnVeutLesNoms), given the extremely tense crisis in the country.

Indeed, French Public Health confirmed this Saturday that 5,273 people are admitted to intensive care units in the country, after having recorded more than 399 admissions in the last 24 hours and even exceeded the previous wave, while a maximum of 4093 occupied the exceptional treatment rooms in mid-November.

The number of hospitalizations continues to increase, with 28,886 patients included in 1,730 new admissions within 24 hours. The seven-day figure is also on the rise, with nearly 13,500 admissions, including 3,074 in intensive care.

As for the positivity rate, which measures the percentage of positive people, it stands at 7.9%. The disease has killed 96,493 people since the outbreak began in March 2020, 187 more in recent hours.

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