Coronavirus: prolonged confinement, Emmanuel Macron will speak on Monday

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Duration of prolongation of confinement, wearing of a mask, digital tracing, revival of the economy for "the day after", Emmanuel Macron, who will speak on Monday, April 13 in the evening, must decide difficult subjects, faced with an epidemic of coronavirus with increasingly heavy consequences.

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The only certainty: the confinement will be " extended " beyond April 15, announced the Elysee, without however specifying until when. The head of state could address the issue in his address on Easter Monday, his fourth since March 12.

Emmanuel Macron will thus take over from Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who has been in charge of the main announcements over the past two weeks, notably that of a first extension of the confinement started on March 17. After advancing to discuss the preparation for deconfinement last week, Edouard Philippe returned to the present to prepare the French for a long crisis. As the day before the Assembly, he stressed Wednesday before the Senate that the confinement was called " obviously to last some time yet ".

With the approach of the Easter weekend and the beginning of the holidays for some, the authorities fear a relaxation while the death toll now exceeds 10,000 dead in the country, even if the number of admissions to intensive care slows sharply.

Several decisions are not made

Criticized for a trip that caused a crowd of dozens of people around him in Pantin , Emmanuel Macron is also expected on the controversies that have continued to grow, in particular on the need or not of the widespread port of the mask . He should not, however, at this stage advise him to the entire population, government spokesman Sibeth Ndiaye hinted on Wednesday.

By Monday, Emmanuel Macron plans to consult " a large number of public and private actors, French European and international " to " prepare the decisions to be announced Monday, " according to the Elysee. On Wednesday, it thus consulted experts from the World Health Organization, some of its European partners, its Scientific Council and elected officials in the field, on key elements such as masks, vaccines, tests and exit from containment.

The government seems to hesitate about installing a patient tracking application called StopCovid , a track unveiled on Wednesday by the Minister of Health Olivier Véran and the Secretary of State for Digital Cédric O, but which is criticized to the breast of the Republic's deputies on the march.

Regain the confidence of the French

On the measures to support the economy, the choices of the executive seem clearer. Minister Bruno Le Maire assured that the payment of partial unemployment, used by a quarter of employees and which will cost tens of billions of euros, will be " maintained for the duration of this health and economic crisis ". " We made a choice which is to preserve the skills, the employees rather than to have like in the United States, millions of additional unemployed ", in order to facilitate the restarting, he justified.

For Emmanuel Macron as for the government, the challenge is to regain the confidence of the French on crisis management, which has declined significantly in the past two weeks. However, a Label poll showed a slight rise of 2 points, to 43%, in the percentage of French people who said they trusted "to fight effectively against the coronavirus epidemic " on Wednesday.

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• Coronavirus
• Health and Medicine
• France
• Emmanuel Macron