Paris (AFP)
The confinement was fairly well respected this weekend, given the radiant weather and the start of the school holidays in France, the government said on Sunday evening when the coronavirus killed more than 8,000 people in the country, even if the curves of deaths and start of intensive care show a slowdown.
"Relaxation is the Covid's ally," Interior Minister Christophe Castaner reminded France 2 television news, stressing that there had been no "major movement" of the population.
"The French have respected the rule, have respected confinement", which is in its 20th day, he said, even if in places, signs of relaxation were noted, with joggers in the midst of families on the banks of the Ourcq canal in Paris or children playing in groups in building courtyards ...
Monday, a digital travel certificate will also be available, in addition to the paper system already in place to justify authorized trips.
Since Friday, the start of school holidays in zone C, which brings together the academies of Ile-de-France and Occitania, more than 160,000 police and gendarmes have been mobilized. And nearly 1.4 million checks have been carried out over the past three days, said Castaner, in an attempt to stem the pandemic.
According to the Sunday evening assessment of the Directorate General of Health (DGS), France has registered 357 new deaths in hospital in the past 24 hours, the lowest number recorded since Tuesday, bringing to 8,078 the total number of deaths taking into account data from nursing homes and other medico-social establishments. And nearly 7,000 patients requiring heavy care are in intensive care.
If the number of deaths is at its lowest level in a week, and a slowdown in admissions to resuscitation seems to be confirmed, the time is still to be cautious. "Let us respect the instructions, strict confinement, physical distance and barrier gestures, to protect ourselves, protect our loved ones", recalled the DGS.
- Temptation to be outside -
In Morbihan, vacationers and secondary residents came with their families in the town of La Trinité-sur-Mer, indicates the daily Ouest-France which also reports the concerns of the mayor of Quiberon Bernard Hilliet about the arrival of new visitors .
"The deconfinement is not on the agenda, the deadline is not fixed", hammered the Secretary of State to the Minister of the Interior Laurent Nunez. "I remind you of the rule (...) we go out when it is strictly necessary," he added.
"It's the holidays, the weather is fine, don't give in to temptation, stay at home as much as possible", urged Valérie Pécresse, president of the Ile-de-France region, one of the most severely affected by the epidemic and where the "health system is completely saturated".
Earlier, the director general of the AP-HP Martin Hirsch deplored the presence of "too many people in the streets, too many strollers, too many walkers" in Paris, crossed by the carers going to their work.
In the Manche, the prefecture recalled that the beaches are forbidden access. Olivier Paz, mayor of the Norman commune of Merville-Franceville, railed on Twitter against "secondary residents (...) out of their confinement to come to Normandy".
"The word deconfinement was pronounced too early" by the government, causing a "relaxation" in the population, regretted the boss of the deputies LR Damien Abad.
"I do not even understand that we are talking about deconfinement, it continues to happen constantly," lamented Nathalie (modified first name), nurse at the Kremlin-Bicêtre (Val-de-Marne), telling of completely overwhelmed services for patients.
- New transfers -
Forty patients with Covid-19 were transferred Sunday to "less stressed" regions, Brittany in particular via medical trains, including a TGV arriving in Rennes in the early afternoon.
In total, according to the DGS, more than 610 patients in critical condition have been evacuated since March 18, from Grand Est and Ile-de-France.
Orly Airport has also been used to evacuate patients with Covid-19 to relieve congestion in Ile-de-France hospitals.
The prospect of continued confinement beyond April 15 seems likely, but Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said on Saturday that it was "impossible" to know when students could return to class.
- New delivery of masks -
While the debate on the availability and use of masks continues to rage, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran said Saturday that France had ordered nearly two billion masks from China. Airbus sent four million masks to Europe this weekend, including a portion for France.
The race against the clock to find a cure for the disease continues, and Tuesday will begin in France a clinical trial consisting in transfusing blood plasma from people recovered from Covid-19 - containing antibodies directed against the virus - to patients in acute phase.
Laboratories which are not normally authorized to carry out medical biology procedures (including departmental and veterinary laboratories) will be able to "participate in the national effort to detect" the virus, confirmed this weekend to AFP on Ministry of Health.
On the economic level, the Minister of Finance, Bruno Le Maire, assured the Journal du Dimanche that The State would bring "the necessary financial means", recalling that it would guarantee up to 300 billion euros in bank loans, ie l equivalent to 15% of French GDP.
bur-laf-ram-may / fpo / dlm
© 2020 AFP