France sees nationwide 6pm curfew
PARIS: Cities, towns and villages across France were practically empty on Saturday as residents stayed home and businesses shut to observe a nationwide curfew intended to help stem the spread of coronavirus, especially a more infectious variant.
The virus has killed 70,000 people in France, the seventh-highest toll in the world, and the government is particularly worried by the more transmissible variant first detected in Britain, which now accounts for about 1% of new cases.
The curfew was brought forward two hours to 6pm and will run until 6pm. In addition, from today anyone travelling to France from outside the European Union will have to show a negative test result and self-isolate for a week upon arrival.
“These measures were necessary given the situation. While worsening, it remains relatively better than many countries around us, but I took them because the context, notably with the evolution of the virus, means we have to have utmost vigilance,” Prime Minister Jean Castex said in a speech.
Shops and businesses sought to mitigate the potential losses of the curfew by opening as early as 7.30am on Saturday.
New daily infections have hit a plateau at around 20,000, but the number of people being admitted to hospital and requiring intensive care treatment is still rising. The government has also been criticised for the slow pace of France’s vaccine rollout.
Renaud Piarroux, an epidemiologist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, said the curfew would have little impact in curtailing the new variants.
“We will have to make big efforts like the English and even the Germans. I think it’s best to toughen things up now rather than later,” he told BFM TV. “We have to anticipate. I think a new lockdown is inevitable.”