Nina Droff, Siam Spencer and Manon Fossat 2:04 p.m., February 16, 2022, modified at 2:06 p.m., February 16, 2022
A new reduction in sanitary measures begins this Wednesday.
As promised, the nightclubs, which have been among the most penalized with 18 months of closure over two years of crisis, are reopening their doors.
Eating popcorn in a movie theatre, a sandwich in a stadium or on a train and having a drink standing up at a bar counter is also possible again.
The French will once again be able to go dancing.
Closed nightclubs reopen this Wednesday, after two months of closure due to the latest wave of coronavirus.
Eating in a movie theatre, stadium or train is also allowed again, as is standing consumption in bars.
Something to delight professionals in the sector, as well as customers.
This is what Europe 1 has observed in several Parisian establishments.
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Since this Wednesday morning, many customers have been filing past the counters and are delighted to reconnect with this little ritual that they had missed.
"I'm very happy because it's true that I like to have my coffee at the counter in the morning before going to work", explains one of them.
“It is the French tradition, and in particular Parisian, to go and have your coffee standing up in a bistro”, assures another.
Hope for a lasting recovery
A small café that nevertheless has a taste of normality for the managers of brasseries and bars, as is the case for Sébastien, who finally has the feeling of seeing the end of the tunnel.
"It will revitalize a little because having a deserted counter is not very selling and it does not necessarily make you want to come back," he notes.
"And it's often good morning in the morning to say that we're going to come and eat lunch, or even an evening drink with colleagues. We're heading towards the end of the Covid so that's good news".
He is also impatiently awaiting the next step, namely the end of the wearing of the mask in his establishment.
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On the side of the nightclubs also the news is welcomed with enthusiasm.
For Christian Jouny, general delegate of the national union of nightclubs and owner of two nightclubs in Loire-Atlantique, it is above all a relief.
“We are happy to be able to resume our activity. We have gone through an extremely painful crisis. Each of us has lost our cash flow. Each of us is very heavily in debt. I was only waiting for one thing, to see this light at the end of the tunnel", he says, impatient to see the return of customers with a will.
"I hope this time the recovery will be sustainable. Last time we had this feeling, but unfortunately, five months after the government closed us down."
A beginning of return "to the world before"
Invited to Europe Midi on Wednesday, the infectiologist Benjamin Davido, Covid-19 referent medical director at the Raymond-Poincaré hospital in Garches, estimated that if "we go back a little to the world before", the part "n is not won in advance".
“Today, there are more than 30,000 hospitalizations, which is a dizzying figure, equal to what we saw in March 2020. So that means that it will take time to free up the beds and be able to reschedule the patients, whether it is surgery, cancerology and in a way that the hospital can return completely to the world before”, he nuanced.
Because according to him, it is difficult to ensure at the present time that there will definitely be no more restrictions.
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- Covid-19: Olivier Véran plans to end the indoor mask in mid-March
As for the prospect of the end of wearing the mask outdoors in mid-March outlined by Olivier Véran this Wednesday, Benjamin Davido wanted to remain cautious but considered that it was "a reasonable date".
"I think we shouldn't take too hasty decisions. Mathematical models and indicators show us that, probably, the decline of this wave should appear from mid-March and more certainly, at the end of March [ ...] It takes patience and time and it is very important to continue the vaccination pass to allow people who have not had their 3rd dose to be durably protected against Omicron."