An "exceptional device" has been put in place to prevent departures on vacation and to enforce confinement in France where the tragic advance of the Covid-19 epidemic has caused more than 6,500 deaths, including around 1,400 in pensions and other medico-social establishments.

More than 160,000 police and gendarmes have been mobilized since Friday and for the entire weekend to enforce containment measures, "an exceptional control device", explained, Friday, April 3, the Secretary of State for the Interior , Laurent Nuñez on RTL.

As of Wednesday, the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, had closed the door to the traditional big departures for the spring holidays and the big Easter weekend. Zone C, which brings together the academies of Ile-de-France and Occitania, is on school holidays from Friday. He also said on Friday that the checks would take place throughout the weekend, "at stations, on highways, on roads, also at vacation spots".

# COVID19 | No release is allowed: lives are at stake. Today, tonight, all weekend, checks are organized by the police and the gendarmerie all over the country: on vacation spots, in places public and wherever necessary. pic.twitter.com/JQE2zbCAGp

- Christophe Castaner (@CCastaner) April 3, 2020

# COVID19 | No release is allowed: lives are at stake. Today, tonight, all weekend, checks are organized by the police and the gendarmerie all over the country: on vacation spots, in places public and wherever necessary. pic.twitter.com/JQE2zbCAGp

- Christophe Castaner (@CCastaner) April 3, 2020

Tourist rentals prohibited in several departments

Among the tourist departments, Charente-Maritime - where the islands of Ré and Oléron, Royan or La Rochelle are located - "urged tourist accommodation rental platforms to take all the necessary measures to ensure that no rental which does not meet an imperative and duly justified professional reason does not take place until the end of confinement ".

The prefectures of Gironde and Pyrénées-Atlantiques also prohibited tourist accommodation on Friday evening from welcoming the public in all the municipalities on their coast.

>> Read: Coronavirus: flip-flops on masks in France and the United States

"The massive influx of people would favor contagion and could lead to strong tensions on the already mobilized health establishments, in particular on the resuscitation services", indicated the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques in a press release.

The country, confined since March 17 to fight against the expansion of Covid-19, recorded the worst daily toll since the start of the epidemic: 588 people died between Thursday and Friday, bringing to more than 6,500 the toll total deaths due to this virus, while more than 6,600 people were also in intensive care, a record "in French medical history", stressed the Director General of Health, Jérôme Salomon, during his press briefing daily.

With AFP

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