Health Minister Olivier Véran announced new restrictions on Wednesday evening to fight against the spread of Covid-19 in France: total or early closure of bars and restaurants, sports halls and ban on gatherings.
In Europe, more than five million cases have been recorded.
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The government announced new restrictive measures on Wednesday evening to fight the coronavirus.
Guadeloupe and the Aix-Marseille metropolis, placed on "maximum alert", are the two areas most concerned, with a total closure of bars and restaurants.
Other large cities, including Paris, have been placed on "heightened alert".
The information to remember:
Closure of bars and restaurants in Marseille and Guadeloupe from Saturday
Gatherings limited to 1,000 people in "heightened alert" areas
13,000 new cases were recorded on Wednesday
Paris and 10 other metropolises on heightened alert
The Minister of Health Olivier Véran spoke on Wednesday evening.
11 cities are now on heightened alert: Lille, Toulouse, Saint-Etienne, Rennes, Rouen, Grenoble, Montpellier, Paris and its inner suburbs, Lyon, Nice and Bordeaux.
In these metropolises, new restrictive measures are expected, such as lowering the gauge of gatherings to 1,000 people, the ban on gatherings such as local and student parties, or the ban on gatherings of more than 10 people in the city. 'public space (parks and beaches).
Bars will have to close early from Monday at 10 p.m. maximum.
It is up to the prefect to decide the exact closing time in the coming days.
In addition, party and multipurpose rooms will be closed in these cities for festive and associative activities from Monday.
Marseille and Guadeloupe on maximum alert
In these two areas, bars and restaurants will have to close entirely from Saturday.
These measures, as for all of these areas, are taken for a period of 15 days and "will be reassessed depending on the evolution of the epidemic situation".
Renaud Muselier, LR president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region Renaud Muselier, and Michèle Rubirola, the mayor of Marseille, denounced a "unilateral" decision by the government.
At the Pointe-à-Pitre University Hospital, three times more patients have been admitted over the last four weeks than in the first wave.
16 deaths have been recorded in one week, compared to 26 since the start of the epidemic.
The Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly announced Wednesday evening on Twitter the deployment of 37 additional military medical personnel on the spot to "operate up to eight resuscitation beds".
Reinforcements that will certainly be welcomed with open arms, even if in Guadeloupe we hoped to see about fifty men disembark.
13,000 new cases in 24 hours
"The overall situation continues to deteriorate, in particular the level of hospital tension," Olivier Véran said Wednesday evening.
The latest report shows 13,072 new cases in 24 hours, a figure up from Tuesday.
The test positivity rate is also increasing slightly, to 6.2%.
In total, 31,459 people died from the coronavirus, including 43 in 24 hours.
950 patients are now in intensive care for a coronavirus infection, with around a hundred daily admissions in recent days, according to Olivier Véran.
More than 6,000 people are hospitalized, with around 600 daily admissions in recent days.
Over the last seven days, 4,244 new hospitalizations were recorded, including 675 in intensive care.
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More than five million cases in Europe
The Covid-19 pandemic has already infected more than five million people in Europe, where France followed suit with England on Wednesday and tightened restrictions in its capital and several other major cities.
In total, 5,000,421 cases have been identified in Europe for 227,130 dead, according to a count made by AFP on Wednesday.
This increase in the number of contaminations detected is partly explained by the sharp increase in the number of tests carried out in certain European countries, such as in France (more than one million tests per week).
More restrictions in Spain
In Spain, one of the most affected European countries, the region of Madrid, which has once again become the epicenter of the pandemic, will announce on Friday the extension of measures restricting freedom of movement to other areas in order to attempt to curb contagions.
Nearly a million inhabitants of the Spanish capital and its periphery have been banned since Monday from leaving their neighborhood, except for very specific reasons: to go to work or study, to go to a doctor, to respond to a summons. legal or looking after dependent people.
The region has asked for help from the military to carry out tests and disinfect the most affected areas.
The threshold of 200,000 deaths crossed in the United States
The pandemic has killed more than 971,677 people around the world since the end of December and more than 31.67 million cases have been recorded, according to a report established Wednesday by AFP.
The Americas, accounting for more than 38% of all new cases reported in the past week according to the WHO, remains the most affected, even though the death toll has fallen by 22%.