The confinement of all French will last several weeks: Friday, the Prime Minister announced an extension of these drastic measures at least until April 15, in order to fight against the coronavirus. In fact, the hour is serious: the epidemic had caused the death of 1,995 people on Friday evening, or 299 deaths in 24 hours. Almost 33,000 cases were confirmed that same day. But the Scientific Council had, him, a few days earlier, recommended confinement of "at least" six weeks, ie until April 28.
>> LIVE - Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation Friday March 27
It was during lunch on Friday at the Élysée Palace that Emmanuel Macron and Édouard Philippe made the decision to extend the confinement for only 15 days. "Who is capable of having a forecast for more than two weeks?", One explains in the entourage of the President. "We don't know how to see beyond", we recognize at Matignon.
"The political decision is ours"
Whatever the recommendations of the members of the Scientific Council, the executive did not wish to go beyond mid-April. "The Scientific Council has an opinion, but the political decision is ours", we defend the Ministry of Health, carefully following the curves.
>> PODCAST - Coronavirus: find all the answers to your questions here
"Would the members of the Scientific Council put their hand to cutting it down to six weeks in all?" Asked an adviser. Some fear that announcing four weeks of extension now, without being certain that it is not a little more or a little less, is tricky.
Sparing of the population
Within the executive, one swears that the decision announced by the Prime Minister Friday is not made to spare the population: "Everyone knows that it is left to last", pleads a close to Edouard Philippe.
CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS
> Paid leave, RTT, sick leave: what changes the state of health emergency
> What do we know about chloroquine, the treatment that is debating?
> What to do if you are sick, but not coronavirus?
> Why you will have to be patient to be reimbursed for a canceled trip
> Homemade bread, short circuits ... Our solutions to continue to eat well during confinement
> Sex: how to manage abstinence during confinement?
At the Ministry of Health, one hammers above all a message for the attention of the French: "Do not think that your efforts do not pay. It is because you stay at home that the confinement will be limited to the minimum."