- The mayor of Nice, tested positive for coronavirus, manages the crisis from his home.
- Christian Estrosi announced "the pooling of national and municipal police forces to be extremely harsh against those who contravene the instructions given" in the context of confinement.
The first round of the municipal elections had barely passed, the diagnosis fell for the outgoing mayor (LR) of Nice. Monday, Christian Estrosi announced that he had tested positive for the new coronavirus after the appearance of "first symptoms".
Since then, the elected official has been confined to his home and worked on "crisis management" with his videoconference teams. New measures have been taken in the city as the executive announced on Monday evening traffic restriction measures to combat the spread of the virus. By phone, the elected official takes stock of the situation with 20 Minutes .
First of all, how do you feel?
I feel very tired. Some aches like a big flu. I no longer knew what it was like because I have been vaccinated for 25 years but, it allowed me a little reminder. It doesn't prevent me from working in new conditions, but like everyone else. I see that the prefect [of the Alpes-Maritimes] stays at home, my main collaborators too. I have 6,000 staff from the city and the mainland [out of a total of 12,000] who have not been given priority and who I have asked to stay with them.
Have other cases been detected in your entourage?
My wife [ Telematin columnist Laura Tenoudji-Estrosi] had the same symptoms. We were both screened. And we were both positive. She is like me in pretty good shape. Around me, out of the twenty or so people I have worked closely with over the past few days, two were starting to experience the same symptoms this morning. Like everyone else, they are confined.
How will your days go?
We manage all day long by videoconference. We don't stop. I hold a dozen meetings a day. Then phone, phone, phone. Here I am, nailed at home but I am everything, minute by minute. It does not change anything.
You are also chairman of the board of directors of the CHU de Nice. What is the current situation of the epidemic in the area?
I'm pretty worried about the days ahead. Until now, we were a region which was rather spared but it is starting to rise. And we know that within 48 hours, it will go up very very strong. To date, we have 96 cases identified in the Alpes-Maritimes. The CHU has programmed 50% of its non-emergency surgical procedures to be able to equip operating theaters with respiratory devices and to cope with a possible influx. The CHU is not in the red for the moment. We also shared the load with other establishments in the department, in Cannes, in Menton and in other smaller structures. And then, people, like me, are more and more, for many, supported in ambulatory, at home.
Should the confinement decided on Monday evening last more than a fortnight?
These measures must already be followed to the letter. It is a serious matter. I tell everyone 'worry'. I saw too many scenes in the supermarkets, in the markets, of people totally oblivious. The only way to quickly stop the epidemic is to respect the barriers. We must not meet anyone. The goal is to arrive at a decline within three weeks and it is achievable. This is the whole issue of management, which I find quite solid, decreed by the President of the Republic.
How will the checks be carried out in Nice?
With the prefect, we decided to pool the national and municipal police forces to be extremely severe with regard to those who contravene the instructions given. From tomorrow [Tuesday] morning, they will patrol together and divide up the areas identified at risk. We also had a looting scene last night [Monday to Tuesday] in a supermarket in Les Moulins [a neighborhood in the west of the city]. These kinds of security issues are to be expected. There is not only discipline, there are also the risks of certain violent behavior which would like to profit from a supposed demobilization of the police.
You have decided to lower the use of public transport…
Transport has seen a drop in traffic. We are already 30% less. We reduce the airfoil by 25%, but we will still adapt so that people understand that we only use them when it is essential. And my goal is also to preserve my agents, my drivers. At the same time, on-street parking has been made completely free to facilitate in particular the intervention of caregivers in the city.
You will also launch on the city's website a directory of shops that can deliver food to your home…
We are in the process of making an inventory to put it online in the coming hours. Forty brands would be affected in total. The less people will need to eat while on the move, the better. And, at the same time, for a certain number of businesses that could have shut down, the delivery solution makes it possible to support a certain level of turnover.
Precisely, how are you already working on the post-crisis, on the revival of the local economy?
We are discussing it with the chambers of commerce and trades and the trade and hotel federations. In the coming days, I will set up a solidarity fund via the CCAS for independent traders and artisans and small activities that do not have a cash fund. I asked the government for authorization to make a municipal and metropolitan relief. There will also be a road tax exemption for restaurants until June and I have suspended the payment of tourist tax for hotels until early summer.
Was the decision to postpone the second round of the municipal elections the right one?
We could even have postponed the first round. It would have seemed more reasonable to me. It was in any case not conceivable to maintain the second round within the framework of an almost generalized confinement. The date of this postponement remains to be determined. That of June 21 seems the most advanced, some also speak of 14.
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- Coronavirus
- Nice
- Christian Estrosi