Lille (AFP)

Jean Castex arrived Monday morning in Lille for a visit intended to take stock of the resurgence of the epidemic in the metropolis, where wearing a mask is now compulsory in certain "open public places" as elsewhere in the country.

The Prime Minister, as well as that of the Interior Gerald Darmanin and the government spokesman Gabriel Attal, began their visit around 9:00 am with a briefing on the situation at the Regional Health Agency.

"The dynamic is very worrying and it is absolutely necessary to break it", underlined the doctor Patrick Goldstein, head of the pole of the emergency and the Samu du Nord at the CHU of Lille.

If there is no impact "today" on the hospital, "what we are sure is that it will not last. Tomorrow, there will be a transmission from patients with little symptoms to fragile patients, ”he added.

In the Nord department, the incidence rate has more than doubled in three weeks, from nine confirmed cases per 100,000 inhabitants to 21.8 inhabitants, a rate which is "even higher among 15-44 year olds".

In the Lille metropolis, which has 95 municipalities with 1.2 million inhabitants, the positivity rate reaches 3%, a level "three times higher than in the rest of the department", and the incidence rate is established. now to 38 people infected per 100,000 inhabitants against 17 two weeks earlier.

As a result, the prefect of the North pronounced on Friday the obligation to wear the mask in certain public areas likely to accommodate concentrations of people, after the authorization given to the prefects to extend the wearing of the compulsory mask in "places. open audiences ".

This decision will concern in particular "the pedestrian zones", "the zones where the road traffic is limited to 20 km / h", those "which are characterized by a very strong frequentation of the public" like certain large shopping streets and known for their night life Lille or "all urban green spaces, including the edges of waterways", announced the prefect Michel Lalande.

Mr. Castex must then go to the Institut Pasteur in Lille where a screening center "in drive and pedestrian mode" has been set up.

Finally, he is expected in a mask-making workshop in Roubaix, the former capital of the textile industry. The factory, created in haste during the new coronavirus crisis, is part of the Resilience network, which campaigns for the relocation of this activity in France and brings together SMEs and integration companies.

It produces fabric masks in the shape of a duckbill, washable 20 times.

Mr. Castex is due to speak at the end of this visit, around 12:30 pm, from the Roubaix Town Hall.

The discourse of the authorities has evolved over the weeks and scientific knowledge, from a mask "useless for anyone in the street" to end in an obligation in all closed public places, since July 20, and therefore now in some public areas.

© 2020 AFP