France could face lockdown again after surge in cases

EMMANUEL MACRON raised the grim possibility of another nationwide lockdown as France grappled with an “exponential” rise in coronavirus cases after the daily count of new infections almost doubled in the past week.

“I wouldn’t have learned much from what we’ve lived through in the past eight months if I told you I’m totally ruling out [a lockdown],” the president told journalists. But he added that his government was “doing everything” to avoid the return of restrictions that could derail France’s fragile economic recovery.

He said lockdown was “the crudest of measures to fight a virus” and urged people to maintain precautions such as social distancing. “What we must do is get people back to work,” he added.

France confirmed a further 7,379 cases on Friday in the largest spike since March, after daily increases of 6,111 on Thursday and 5,429 on Wednesday.

Despite the sharp rise, hospital admissions and deaths remained stable over the week, as most of the new cases are people under 40 who are less vulnerable to the disease. About half have no symptoms.

“The spread of the epidemic is exponential,” Public Health France said in a statement. “Hospital admissions and patients in intensive care remain at limited levels but they are increasing.”

Karine Lacombe, head of the infectious diseases department at Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris, said: “The number of hospital admissions is doubling about every three weeks, but in March it was doubling every three days. ”

She added: “We’re much better at dealing with the virus now. We’ve learned from our mistakes … The sec

‘I wouldn’t have learned much from what we’ve lived through if I told you I’m totally ruling it out’

ond wave started at the end of July, but it’s nothing like what we saw in March and April.”

Jean-Francois Delfraissy, the government’s chief scientific adviser, said: “It’s the same wave starting up again because we’ve stopped social distancing.”

Dr Lacombe warned the epidemic could last “one-and-a-half to two years, unless there’s a miracle with a vaccine.”

Twenty people died of Covid-19 on Friday, bringing France’s overall toll to 30,596.