Paris (AFP)

France entered its fourth week of confinement on Tuesday to fight against the coronavirus, but it is far from being at the end of its pain, with nearly 9,000 dead and despite some glimmers of hope.

After so many days of unprecedented confinement throughout the national territory, there is no question of relaxing the efforts made so far to fight the epidemic, the government reaffirmed on Tuesday.

"Containment will last as long as it needs to last" because "we are not yet at the peak of the epidemic", said the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, adding "that we must not talk too soon about deconfinement ".

With the beautiful days coming back and the Easter holidays which started in zone C (Île-de-France and Occitanie), the Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner asked the prefects to "examine on a case by case basis" and in connection with the mayors the "need to tighten the measures".

In Reunion, nine people, including six members of the same family, fled Monday from the compulsory fortnight center where they were placed when they arrived on the island.

- "As long as necessary" -

"Let's be strict on confinement (...) the only way to curb this epidemic," said the president of the Scientific Council, Jean-François Delfraissy.

All the more so since the first signs of a positive effect from this confinement appear, especially in the Grand Est.

In this region, hit hard, the elected Strasbourg and former Minister Catherine Trautmann (PS) called Monday evening to make Alsace the pilot territory for "large-scale tests" of Covid-19 screening to consider the deconfinement.

The European Parliament, which has its seat in Strasbourg, will for its part welcome in the coming days a screening center and a consultation center on the coronavirus.

- Pressure still strong -

The pressure on hospitals and nursing homes remains very strong, however. The Minister of Health announced the launch of a vast screening operation in nursing homes, some of which have been decimated by the disease.

According to the latest report, at least 2,417 deaths have been recorded since the start of the epidemic in nursing homes and other medico-social establishments.

For relatives, the absence of information is often a nightmare. "Care team with four mobile numbers, it does not respond. Medical secretary, it does not respond. Psychological cell, it does not respond", alarmed AFP Clarisse Marquez, whose 85-year-old mother entered an Ehpad in Paris a few days before confinement.

In total, since March 1, 8,911 people have died in France. 6,494 of them died in hospitals, 605 of them in 24 hours, another worst daily report. The improvement noted on this plan on Sunday therefore did not last.

Pending a possible vaccine, a clinical trial consisting in transfusing blood plasma from recovered people to "patients in acute phase of the disease" is due to start on Tuesday. The process has already proven to be effective, in small-scale studies, against other infectious diseases like Ebola or Sras.

Other remedies continue to cause controversy. An entrepreneur from the Loire region, suspected of having offered chloroquine to his employees, was placed in police custody on Monday, then released.

- A coveted property -

This does not prevent France from continuing its efforts to source masks, a good now coveted by the whole planet, and its orders from manufacturers in China now reach nearly two billion copies, assured Saturday Mr. Véran. They will all be there by the end of June, he promised.

The elected officials of the big cities all the same asked Monday for quick answers to the government on the screening of health personnel and nursing homes, childcare or the use of protective masks.

The leader of the senators LR Bruno Retailleau pushed a "rant" on Tuesday against the requisitions by the government of masks ordered by the communities, in particular by the region Bourgone-France-Comté.

The epidemic, which has killed more than 70,000 people worldwide, continues to darken the economic outlook.

The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire brushed Monday the scenario of a recession "probably far beyond -2.2%" in France this year.

On Tuesday, fifteen unions and associations, including the CGT, the FSU, Greenpeace or the Confédération paysanne, launched a petition to demand from the government short-term measures to respond to the health crisis and long-term measures to "never again a such a situation happens again. "

The confinement period will have at least enabled a sharp drop in crimes and misdemeanors during the month of March, of the order of 45% for the majority of the indicators.

© 2020 AFP