Jean Castex asked elected officials from 20 departments placed under "enhanced surveillance" to think about new measures to fight Covid-19, including confinements on weekends.
In Paris, the town hall will propose a three-week confinement.
Follow the situation live.
LIVE
The Prime Minister announced Thursday evening the placing under "reinforced surveillance" of 20 departments where the circulation of Covid-19 continues to accelerate.
He asks elected officials to agree on new "braking measures".
Local containments could be enacted in these areas, such as in Nice and Dunkirk.
For its part, the mayor of Paris will propose a three-week confinement in the capital.
New restrictions come into force at the Franco-German border for cross-border workers.
Follow the evolution of the situation live.
The main information to remember:
Twenty departments are placed under "increased surveillance", weekend confinements could be promulgated there as in Dunkirk and Nice
In Paris, the town hall will propose confinement for three weeks
Restrictions enter into force at the Franco-German border
Vaccination will be open in early April to all over 65s
Twenty departments under "enhanced surveillance"
Prime Minister Jean Castex announced Thursday the establishment of "increased surveillance" for 20 departments with a high level of incidence - around 250 cases per 100,000 inhabitants -, a share of greater than 50%, a hospital pressure close to the critical threshold and increasing viral circulation.
These departments are those of Ile-de-France, a large part of Hauts-de-France and Provence-Alpes-Côte-D'azur, but also the departments of Rhône and Drôme, Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle, and finally Eure-et-Loir.
"We are therefore placing these departments under enhanced surveillance. I asked the prefects of the departments concerned to initiate consultations with elected officials in order to immediately invite all residents to the greatest vigilance and to consider, in all or part of these territories, braking measures similar to those implemented in Nice and Dunkirk, "said the head of government.
"We will take stock next week and then we will decide: if the situation continues to deteriorate, we will take reinforced measures which will come into force from the weekend of March 6," added Jean Castex.
>> READ ALSO -
Local confinements: does the executive want to save time before a total reconfinement?
Additional restrictions now imposed from next weekend in Dunkirk, the second territory to be re-defined after the Nice region.
Conversely, in territories relatively spared by the epidemic, such as Brittany, we are calling for easing of restrictions.
Find our report here.
The Paris city hall will propose confinement for three weeks
The mayor of Paris will propose to the government a three-week confinement in the capital in order to "have the prospect of reopening everything" at its end, including bars, restaurants and cultural places, affirmed the first deputy Emmanuel Grégoire on France Info .
Rather than confinement on weekends, a measure "very restrictive in terms of societal impact and not very effective in terms of health", the first deputy prefers "short confinement" in Paris so as "really restore oxygen and have the prospect of reopening everything in three weeks, "while retaining health protection measures.
Additional restrictions at the Franco-German border
Paris and Berlin decided on Thursday to introduce restrictions in the form of mandatory testing for cross-border workers between the French department of Moselle and neighboring German regions, to counter the Covid-19 pandemic.
The two countries have agreed to avoid resorting to a border closure with strict controls.
Concretely, the Moselle will put in place obligations for PCR tests from Monday for its cross-border workers going to Germany.
Cross-border workers will have to take a weekly test, the French government said.
In addition, cross-border workers navigating between the Moselle and Germany for reasons other than professional - in particular family - will have to present a negative PCR test of less than 72 hours when entering France.
Since January 31, travelers other than cross-border travelers arriving in France from an EU country are already subject to this obligation.
General practitioners join the dance of vaccination, open from April to those over 65
Since Thursday, general practitioners - but also occupational physicians, in companies - can perform injections in their practice, with the AstraZeneca serum.
The target audience is people aged 50 to 64 with comorbidities, such as diabetes or heart or lung disease.
This new phase of vaccination should allow nearly 2.4 million people to be vaccinated during the month of March.
To know everything about this new stage, it's here
.
>> READ ALSO
- Against the coronavirus, monoclonal antibodies are arriving in France
"By the end of February, more than 4 million vaccines will have been administered to nearly 3 million people," said Jean Castex on Thursday.
He also announced an opening of vaccination to all over 65s at the beginning of April.
"By mid-May, all people over 50 will have been offered vaccination," he promised.
Slight decline in hospitalizations, but still high figures
Thursday, the numbers of hospitalizations and patients in intensive care showed a slight decrease, while remaining high, according to figures published in the evening by Public Health France.
Hospitals counted 25,317 Covid-19 patients (or 297 less than the day before), including 1,454 new hospital patients.
3,430 patients are currently in intensive care, six less than Wednesday.
The number of people tested positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours remains high, at 25,403 confirmed cases (against 31,519 on Wednesday).
The rate of hospital deaths continues to decline, to 261 over the past 24 hours, against 278 Wednesday and 314 Tuesday.
The number of people who have died in France since the start of the epidemic a year ago is now 85,582.
A new player of the XV de France positive, the match against Scotland is postponed
The match of the Six Nations Tournament between France and Scotland scheduled for Sunday was postponed after the detection on Thursday of a new positive case of Covid-19 in the French ranks, already severely decimated by the coronavirus.
In a meeting late Thursday morning, the Six Nations (TOG) testing monitoring group "unanimously recommended the postponement of the France-Scotland match," the organizing committee said in a statement. now working on a new date.
A new player of the XV of France, whose identity has not been specified, has tested positive for Covid-19, announced the French Rugby Federation (FFR) which has decided to suspend training scheduled for Thursday.
"Following the RT-PCR tests carried out this Wednesday, February 24 in the evening and the appearance of a positive case within the squad of players, the FFR medical committee met this morning and decided to suspend training today, "said the FFR in a statement.
Since the start of last week, the XV of France has recorded sixteen positive cases for the coronavirus in total, twelve players and four members of the management including the coach Fabien Galthié.
Axa sentenced on appeal to compensate a restaurateur
The insurer Axa was ordered to compensate a Marseille restaurateur for his operating losses due to Covid-19 by the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, the first appellate court to rule on the merits of this type of litigation before several other courts.
"We will carefully study the reasons for the decision (...). We recall that this same contract is currently the subject of debate before several other appellate courts in the country", reacted Axa in a statement.
CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS
> Are private parties really prohibited with the curfew?
> Coronavirus: a universal vaccine available "towards the end of the year"
> The English variant would cause slightly different symptoms
> Audio, webcams ... When technology adapts to teleworking
> Containment is good for the planet
Difficult vaccination in Europe, the United States "ahead"
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, warned that "the next few weeks" would remain "difficult in the field of vaccination".
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, however, said she was "optimistic" about her goal of vaccinating 70% of the adult EU population by "the end of summer", thanks to the sharp increase expected in laboratory deliveries.
The United States will be "in advance of several weeks" on the vaccination program, welcomed Thursday Joe Biden.
The US president had promised 100 million doses administered in 100 days when he took office in January.
“I'm here today to say we're halfway there, with 50 million doses in just 37 days since I became president,” he said on Thursday.
"It's several weeks early."
More than 2.5 million deaths worldwide
More than 2.5 million deaths from Covid-19 have officially been recorded worldwide since the start of the pandemic in December 2019, according to a count made by AFP from official reports provided by the authorities on Thursday at 6.30 p.m.
In total, 2,500,172 deaths have been recorded, for 112,618,488 reported cases.
Europe, with 842,894 dead, is the most bereaved region, ahead of Latin America / Caribbean (667,972) and the United States / Canada (528,039).
Five countries (the United States, Brazil, Mexico, India and the United Kingdom) account for almost half of the deaths.