Paris (AFP)
A race against time has started for restaurateurs, called on to further strengthen their health protocol to have a chance to remain open in areas on "maximum alert" while bars in these same areas are already anticipating closure, death in the 'soul.
This Friday at 11:45 am, the owners of restaurants, hotels, cafes, brasseries, caterers, bars and nightclubs will "make noise" in front of the doors of their establishments, a black armband on their arm.
Responding to the slogan of the Bordeaux media chief Philippe Etchebest, relayed by the main employers' organization in the sector, the Umih, they say they refuse to "die in silence", after having seen their activity rolled back by three months of closure due to confinement , then the restrictions imposed since last week by the government.
However Thursday, the restaurateurs had the feeling, listening to the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, to "start to be heard": the government "was sensitive to the proposal of the profession to strengthen the health protocol" to maintain opened their establishments, reacted the Umih in a statement.
If validated, these protocols would allow establishments to remain "all or part" open even in areas of "maximum alert" to Covid-19, said Mr. Véran.
They include three flagship measures: "taking the temperature of customers at the entrance of establishments, collecting their contact details in a notebook in order to prevent them in the event of potential contamination, and limiting the groups of guests to 8, against 10 currently, "Roland Héguy, president of Umih, told AFP.
Hotel and restaurant professionals will be received on Friday at the Ministry of Health.
- "How to survive?"
-
Relieved not to see the ax fall immediately, Umih assured that professionals in the sector "will continue to be responsible" and called on its members to "respect to the letter" the additional measures.
Indeed Paris and its inner suburbs, but also Lille, Lyon, Grenoble, Toulouse and Saint-Etienne have obtained a stay despite a "very worrying development" in the health situation in recent days.
These areas could be placed on "maximum alert" from Monday, synonymous with radical restrictions such as the total closure of bars, restaurants and other activities.
However, all is not settled: the government has reported a "beginning of improvement in the health plan, certainly timid", noted in "Bordeaux, Nice" and "even Marseille", where bars and restaurants have were forced to lower the curtain, arousing the anger of the sector and local elected officials who deplored a "lack of consultation".
If the ax of "maximum alert" falls in these suspended areas, bars, unlike restaurants, have no hope for the moment of being able to remain open.
"It doesn't change much: we make 80% of our turnover after 10 p.m., so we have already had to close six of our eight establishments. It was not profitable at all," AFP told AFP. Parisian bar owner Benjamin Koskas.
Out of 100 employees in his group, only 25 work in the two bar restaurants still open, Havanita and Le Mermaid's and Divers, "to keep the teams motivated," he says - "because we don't earn money. "since the closure at 10pm imposed on bars in Paris and ten other metropolises.
"Consumption standing in bars and partying will not return for months: we wonder how we will survive, without help to cover our fixed costs", laments Mr. Koskas.
The professional organizations will however ask that the bars able to apply the reinforced sanitary protocol can remain open.
According to Umih, around 15% of the 220,000 companies in the sector - cafes, bars, hotels, restaurants, brasseries, nightclubs - could go out of business in the coming months, and 220 to 250,000 employees could find themselves unemployed.
© 2020 AFP