Marseille (AFP)

"We cannot afford to procrastinate": on a visit to Marseille, where elected officials and restaurateurs are standing up against the new restrictions intended to stop the Covid-19, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran defended his announcements, "necessary" but "not arbitrary".

"I am fully aware that some of the measures are debated (...) raise concerns, questions, even anger," admitted Mr. Véran during a press conference at the public hospital of Timone.

"These measures, they are necessary, they are temporary, but they are not arbitrary".

The government on Wednesday placed Marseille, which holds the record for metropolitan France for the highest disease incidence rate (at 281 cases per 100,000 according to the authorities), in "maximum alert zone" and announced in particular for the metropolis Aix-Marseille the total closure of bars and restaurants for 15 days from Saturday.

Friday morning, several hundred of them, supported by elected officials, gathered in front of the Marseille commercial court, where they say they fear having to file for bankruptcy soon, according to the local boss of the Union of Trades and Industries of the Bernard Marty hotel industry.

Before the commercial court, Hugo Chauffournier, manager of a bar in the Old Port, said he wanted to continue "to campaign democratically for the moment".

"But if that doesn't work, we'll have to think of other solutions," he warned.

United against government measures, announced without consultation according to them, elected officials from all sides joined the demonstration.

On Twitter, with the hashtag "#RESISTANCE", the deputy mayor of Marseille Samia Ghali (DVG), present at the rally, warned: "If this decision is maintained, the city @marseille will not provide its support for put in place the closures ".

The elected representative also specified to support the approach of the president LR of the region Renaud Muselier, who announced that he would file an interim relief against the prefectural decree imposing the new measures.

On the presidential majority side, in a joint letter to the Minister of Health, the LREM deputies from Bouches-du-Rhône warned against "a climate of mistrust", and asked him to reassess the situation after a week, instead of 15 days as advertised.

While waiting for the situation to improve on its own, "we risk having to take even stronger measures than those we have just announced", replied the Minister.

The decree which must define these new controversial measures had still not been published Friday afternoon.

Will it concern the entire Aix-Marseille metropolis, which covers 3,000 km2 and has 1.8 million inhabitants spread over 92 municipalities?

When will it come into effect?

Asked at a press conference, Olivier Véran mentioned "that it is Sunday rather than Saturday".

The turn of the screw announced Wednesday in the fight against Covid also aroused strong reactions in Paris or Nice, two of the 11 metropolises where bars will have to close at 10 p.m. on Monday.

In Marseille, Professor Didier Raoult for his part relaunched Friday the debate around the figures of the epidemic and the need for new measures, affirming that "the data of Public Health France (consolidated) is (were) not able to justify the slightest panic "in Marseille.

An analysis shared by elected officials opposed to the new measures, but qualified by Sophie Vaux, epidemiologist at Public Health France: "In some regions, there may be a stabilization, but we remain very careful".

Head of the anesthesia and resuscitation service at La Timone, Professor Nicolas Bruder also warned: "If it continues to increase, we will be in a really critical situation for both Covid patients and others. This must absolutely be done. bends ".

According to the latest national report, 16,096 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in 24 hours, a level not reached since the launch of large-scale tests in the country.

In Ile-de-France, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) has already warned that it was forced to deprogram 20% of surgical operations from this weekend.

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