Deconfinement in France: restrictions largely relaxed

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Thanks to the slowdown in France of the Covid-19 epidemic, the government is launching Act II of deconfinement by largely easing restrictions on travel, cafes and restaurants and parks from June 2. In addition, there is no longer a department or region in red on the deconfinement map of France. The departments of Ile-de-France, Guyana and Mayotte go orange.

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Under strong pressure to loosen the noose, and in view of an encouraging health situation, Edouard Philippe and his government presented this Thursday act II of deconfinement, which gives rise to flexibility from Tuesday June 2. "  The results are good in terms of health (...) and the speed of progression of the virus is under control  " announced the Prime Minister, who was also pleased to be "  a little better than where we hoped to be  . "

The reproduction rate of the coronavirus is now less than 1 in most of the French territory, that is the threshold below which an infected person in turn contaminates less than one person, resulting in a decline in the epidemic, said the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.

"  Freedom will again become the rule and prohibition the exception,  " said Edouard Philippe. "  We remain cautious and we cannot run the risk of casualness  ", he warned, before adding that "  the country will have to fight against the impact of a historic recession  ". The number of people registered with Pôle Emploi who did not work at all in April increased by more than 800,000 compared to March, "this  is unfortunately historic,  " said the head of government.

► What changes in phase II of deconfinement:

♦ End of the travel limit of 100 km from June 2.

♦ The lycées will reopen in all departments classified as green, that is to say on the whole territory with the exception of Île-de-France, Mayotte and Guyana. All schools and colleges will be open in June, said Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer.

♦ The StopCovid tracking application will be available free of charge and anonymously from Tuesday 2 June.

♦ Reopening of parks and gardens in the orange zone, particularly in Paris, from June 2. However, there will be “  specific constraints in orange vigilance zones  ”, such as maintaining the limitation of gatherings to ten people.

♦ Cafes and restaurants will be able to reopen from June 2 in the green zone with certain restrictions on social distancing. In the orange zone as in Ile-de-France and Mayotte, only the terraces will be authorized to reopen.

More information to come

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• Coronavirus
• Confinement
• Edouard Philippe
• France