Protesters against the closure of bars and restaurants in Marseille -

Daniel Cole / AP / SIPA

The announcement by Olivier Véran on Wednesday of the upcoming closure of bars and restaurants in the Aix-Marseille metropolis, to fight against Covid-19, sparked an uproar.

This Friday, after a meeting in the prefecture with elected officials and the Minister of Health, visiting Marseille, LR president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region Renaud Muselier announced that the closure total of bars and restaurants in the metropolis will be implemented "from Sunday evening".

"These are significant advances", greeted the president of the region in a separate press release, also referring to "a review clause (...) in seven days to take stock and reassess the situation".

"48 hours to sell stocks"

"We want to discuss, we got 48 hours so that they (the restaurateurs) can sell the stocks, it's not huge but it's already something", also greeted at the end of this meeting Maryse Joissains, the mayor LR of Aix-en-Provence.

The scope of application of the future prefectural decree, which will be published on Saturday according to Renaud Muselier, has however not been defined, said the elected officials interviewed by an AFP journalist at the end of this meeting.

The government on Wednesday placed Marseille, which holds the record for metropolitan France for the highest incidence rate of the disease (at 281 cases per 100,000 according to the authorities), in "maximum alert zone".

In consultation with elected officials from Marseille: bars and restaurants will close on Sunday evening.

In seven days, after a new analysis of the indicators, if the situation improves significantly, we will take it into account.

Otherwise, the closure will be extended for seven days.

- Olivier Véran (@olivierveran) September 25, 2020

He had announced for the Aix-Marseille metropolis the total closure of bars and restaurants for 15 days from Saturday, but it will therefore ultimately be Sunday.

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