It is one of the departments least affected by the coronavirus, in green on the deconfinement map presented by the government on Friday. In Lozère, only one person died from the epidemic, two are still hospitalized and 15 are cured. On the basis of this encouraging observation, Laurent Suau, the mayor of Mende, chief town of this department of 75,000 inhabitants, asked the State, via the prefect, for a tailor-made deconfinement. The city councilor hopes to obtain authorization to carry out this "experiment" and to reopen places of worship as well as restaurants, in order to save many of them who are in isolated areas.
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"The virus has circulated very little on our territory. It is therefore necessary, at all costs, to allow the economy to start again," he explains to the microphone of Europe 1. And if restaurants are allowed to reopen their doors will be in a strict sanitary framework, he says. "For example, no more than two per table, no reservations for groups, menus that people can eventually keep and take away afterwards. Of course, frost, masks for employees."
More than a particular case, Laurent Suau sees it as an opportunity to "test a device that could possibly, after a period of testing, be used for other territories like ours".
"If restaurants only open in July, 15% will shut down"
These rural areas are, in fact, little affected by the epidemic but hit hard by the cessation of activity, especially tourism. For André Corrigés, president of the confederation of small and medium-sized enterprises (cpme) of Lozère, it is therefore urgent to open to save the season.
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"We have a part of the department which is tourist. The Tarn gorges, Aubrac, it is very seasonal. And they are very worried," he says. According to him, postponing the date of May 11 for the opening of restaurants could have serious consequences. "You can't reopen a restaurant in two days. You have to re-enter merchandise, clean everything, disinfect everything, there is a lot of work to do ..." According to him, if restaurants only open July, for example, nearly 15% of them will shut down.