Paris (AFP)

After Aix-Marseille and Paris, four other cities, including Lyon and Lille, will switch to maximum alert zone, synonymous with new health restrictions to curb the epidemic of Covid-19, which is worsening.

These announcements fell while the circulation of the virus raised fears of a "very strong tide" of patients for hospitals in Ile-de-France.

For Lille, Grenoble, Lyon and Saint-Etienne, "a passage in the maximum alert zone has been decided by the President of the Republic in the defense and national security council. This passage will be effective from Saturday morning", a Minister of Health Olivier Véran announced Thursday during his weekly press conference.

Toulouse and Montpellier, "which present worrying epidemic characteristics", could follow the same path and switch "by Monday morning", added Olivier Véran.

On the other hand, the minister noted "a significant improvement in the health situation in Nice and Bordeaux" and "a positive shift" for Rennes and Aix-Marseille.

With a positivity rate "high" and "increasing" to more than 9%, "the health situation unfortunately continues to deteriorate in France", summarized Olivier Véran, while the health restrictions have been added throughout the month September.

- Vigilance on All Saints' Day -

Between Tuesday and Wednesday, 18,746 new cases of contamination had been detected, according to the daily score of Public Health France, a record since the use of large-scale tests, and more than 1,400 patients were in intensive care (for some 5,000 beds of Réa in France) in the middle of the week.

With less than two weeks of the All Saints holidays, Olivier Véran reaffirmed that travel should not be prohibited.

But he called on the French to "be extremely vigilant", especially during family reunions.

The maximum alert zone level is reached when the incidence rate in the general population exceeds 250 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the last seven days, when this incidence rate exceeds 100 in those over 65 years of age, and if the occupancy rate of beds in intensive care units by Covid-19 patients has reached 30% in the region.

Beyond closed bars and restaurants subject to a stricter health protocol, this level has meant for Paris the closure of fairs, trade shows and circuses, more limited gauges in shopping centers, department stores and university lecture halls.

It also involves closing swimming pools to adults and keeping doors closed for fitness rooms.

"We are more a bar than a restaurant, we were already limited to 10 p.m. and there we will have to close. This evening is therefore the penultimate, that sucks," responded Gilles, manager of an establishment close to the Place Bellecour in Lyon.

"It may be a bad thing for a good ... But it will penalize us once again and we must be aware that it will be another hell of a blow to the economy", he added .

- Helping booksellers -

The recession is expected to reach 9% in France according to forecasts, and the return of the epidemic and health restrictions are slowing the recovery.

In response, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, who accompanied Olivier Véran, announced the expansion of access to the Solidarity Fund for companies up to 50 employees, against 20 so far, and to new activities, from florists to laundries, including booksellers on the quays of Paris.

In the Paris region, the next few weeks promise to be difficult in hospitals, even if the dynamics do not resemble that of March-April, when the number of patients in intensive care units doubled in just three to four days.

To cope with the influx of new Covid-19 patients and an occupancy rate of intensive care beds which now exceeds 40%, with forecasts at 50%, the director general of the Ile-de-France regional health agency Aurélien Rousseau announced Thursday that he had triggered the "reinforced white plan", synonymous with deprogramming of activities, reallocation of internal staff, or even recall of staff on leave if necessary.

"A heavy decision" which "means that we are going to take a very strong tide and that we must put all the forces in the battle", warned Aurélien Rousseau, questioned by AFP.

According to Wednesday evening's report, 32,445 people with the coronavirus have died in France since the start of the epidemic.

© 2020 AFP