(Fighting against new crown pneumonia) France's curfew area has been expanded to 54 provinces, involving 46 million people in France
China News Agency, Paris, October 22 (Reporter Li Yang) As the new crown pneumonia epidemic in France continues to worsen, the French official local time on the 22nd expanded the curfew area to 54 provinces, involving 46 million people in France.
French Prime Minister Castel and Health Minister Vilan held a press conference that day to elaborate on the current situation of the epidemic and official response measures.
Castel pointed out that the current situation of the epidemic is severe. France has reached 251 virus infections per 100,000 people, and the proportion of new crown patients in intensive care units is also continuing to rise.
Castel announced that France has expanded the curfew area to 54 provinces, involving 46 million people across France, in order to curb the further spread of the virus.
The curfew period is still from 9 pm to 6 am the next day and will last for 6 weeks.
In addition, French Polynesia in the Pacific will also impose a curfew.
This means that about half of the provinces and two-thirds of the population of France will be affected by the curfew.
Many major cities and regions such as Paris, Lyon and Marseille in France have begun to implement curfews.
38 provinces were newly included in the curfew area on the 22nd, and the curfew in these provinces should come into effect on the 24th.
French Minister of Health Viland introduced the efforts of the medical system to respond to the epidemic.
He said that France has increased the number of intensive care beds to 5,800 and can temporarily increase to 7,700 within 15 days.
He also revealed that currently France can conduct 1.6 million new coronavirus tests every week.
French Minister of Culture Bachelot said that the cultural sector has been severely affected by the epidemic, and the official will provide 115 million euros in assistance for this purpose, mainly to help and support cultural venues such as the performing arts, music, cinemas and theaters.
French officials also officially launched a new version of mobile phone software for tracking virus-infected people on the same day, and called on the public to actively download and use it to make it effective.
Castel stated that he himself has downloaded and used the software.
Castel warned at the end of the press conference that the next few weeks will be very difficult, the number of deaths caused by the epidemic will increase, and the medical system will face an arduous test.
He also said that it will take time to test whether the curfew measures are effective. If the virus continues to spread, the authorities will consider adopting stricter control measures.
The number of newly confirmed cases in a single day in France exceeded 40,000 for the first time on the 22nd, setting a new high since the outbreak; the total number of confirmed cases in France approached 1 million that day.
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