Since Wednesday evening, Guadeloupe has been confined for the third time since the start of the health crisis.

Travel restrictions, coupled with a strict curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., apply for at least three weeks.

Guadeloupeans no longer have the right to move more than 10 kilometers from their home, unless there is a compelling reason and provided with a certificate.

If the businesses remain open, as well as the restaurants at noon, the bars will all be closed, as will the gymnasiums, stadiums and swimming pools.

On the beaches, only the “dynamic” presence will be allowed, for walking, swimming or an individual sporting activity.

22 intensive care admissions in one week

The territory is facing an "exponential growth of cases" of Covid-19.

Some 1,952 cases were identified at the start of the week on the island, according to a press release from the prefecture and the Regional Health Agency (ARS), which warns of the presence of the Delta variant.

The latter now represents 70% of screenings while barely more than 21% of Guadeloupe have received a first dose of vaccine.

"In week 30, there were 71 new Covid hospitalizations and 22 new intensive care admissions", specify the institutions.

Restaurant owners worried about the season

Many inhabitants seem to take confinement with philosophy.

"It does not make me hot or cold, it is for the grandchildren that it is the most annoying: we do not know what they will be able to do", smiles Kléber, an unvaccinated retiree who declares himself " beware ”of announcements by state officials.

"Our problem here is not the Covid, it is the Sargassum" (algae that proliferate in the Caribbean region, editor's note), he laments.

But for the catering sector, the curfew is a new "blow" which leads to the closure of establishments in the evening, as explained by Rudy Nainan, president of the association of restaurateurs of the islands of Guadeloupe.

“July and August are the two busiest months of work of the year.

Months of great affluence since it is local customers and it is the locals who are on vacation and these are people who frequent our establishments a lot, ”he emphasizes, fearing that the progression of the virus will not results in a total closure of restaurants.

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  • Guadeloupe

  • Covid 19

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  • Coronavirus

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