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President Emmanuel Macron defended his decision to delay a third lockdown on Saturday, telling the public they have confidence in their ability to bring COVID-19 under control with less severe brakes even as a third wave spreads and the deployment of the vaccine weakens.
From Sunday, France will close its borders to all travel, except essential travel, to and from countries outside the European Union, while arrivals from inside the bloc will have to test negative. Major shopping centers will be closed and police patrols reinforced to impose a 6 p.m. curfew.
But Macron stopped before ordering a new daytime lockdown, saying he first wanted to see if other measures would be enough to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
With 10% of cases now attributable to the most contagious variant first discovered in Britain, senior doctors have recommended a new lockdown, and an opinion poll has shown more than three-quarters of French people think it is it is now inevitable. The poll also showed a decline in public confidence in the government’s handling of the crisis.
“I have confidence in us. These hours we are living are crucial. Let us do everything possible to slow the epidemic together,” Macron tweeted.
I trust us. The hours we live in are crucial. Let’s do everything to stop the epidemic together.
– Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) January 30, 2021
Macron has also been criticized for rolling out vaccines at a slower pace than other major EU countries, and much slower than Britain or the United States. The latest figures from France show that it has administered only 1.45 million doses of the vaccine to date. Britain, by comparison, recorded 8.4 million.
France reported 24,393 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday, up from 22,858 the day before, while the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients remained above 27,000 for a fifth consecutive day.
The rate of new infections is still lower than it was when the last lockdown was ordered in October, but hospitalization rates are already comparable.
Parisian resident Sami Terki said it was “a good thing at the moment – even mentally – not to have to go through a new lockdown”. But he added: “My only concern is that then we make the decision to lock down too late.”
The public health authority said the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care dropped slightly to 3,113. A sign of the pressure on hospitals, two people seriously affected by COVID were flown from Marseille to the western region of Brittany on Friday.
Professor Dominique Rossi, who heads the Marseille hospitals medical commission, said the local health authority has asked hospitals in the Bouche-du-Rhône region to cancel 40% of all non-urgent medical procedures.
Managing the flow of COVID and non-COVID patients was “a real ethical headache,” he told Reuters. “The (COVID-19) projections are really worrying and the already exhausted understaffing adds another element of concern.”
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)
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