Paris (AFP)
Faced with the resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic, European countries further tightened their protection measures on Wednesday, in France in particular where several large cities including Paris, or nearly 20 million inhabitants, will be subject from Saturday to a nighttime curfew.
Strong restrictions have also been put in place in Northern Ireland, Ireland, Catalonia and the Netherlands.
"We must react" to Covid-19 because "the situation is worrying" with the "second wave" of contamination which has arrived, French President Emmanuel Macron said in a television interview.
Also, from Saturday at midnight, the inhabitants of Paris and its region, as well as eight other large metropolises including Aix-Marseille (south) and Lyon (center-east), will have to stay at home from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time. .
Restaurants, bars, theaters and cinema will therefore have to close.
"We will no longer leave the restaurant after 9 p.m., we will no longer go to friends' houses to party, because we know that this is where we contaminate ourselves the most," said Mr. Macron, specifying that the government would ask Parliament to extend the curfew, initially established for four weeks, until December 1.
However, exemptions will be put in place for professional athletes in areas affected by the curfew, but competitions will be held behind closed doors if they take place after 9 p.m.
This exemption will allow the various championships and competitions to continue.
Covid-10 indicators continued to worsen Wednesday in France with more than 100 deaths over 24 hours, bringing the total toll since the start of the epidemic to at least 33,037 people.
- Many restrictions in Europe -
Elsewhere in Europe, Northern Ireland has announced the most restrictive measures in the UK for a month, and pressure is mounting on UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to take similar decisions in England.
Pubs and restaurants will have to close from Friday, school holidays will be extended to two weeks, businesses will no longer be able to sell alcohol from 8:00 p.m. and gatherings of more than 15 people, apart from authorized sporting events, will be prohibited. .
Northern Ireland faces "a very worrying increase in the number of cases and hospitalizations", said Prime Minister Arlene Foster, with 6,286 new cases in the past seven days.
Across the border in Ireland, citizens will no longer be allowed to visit one another, and areas bordering Northern Ireland will be subject to further drastic restrictions to combat the spread of the pandemic, Prime Minister Micheal Martin announced on Wednesday.
Bars and restaurants will also close for 15 days in Catalonia.
The announcement of this drastic measure in this region of northeastern Spain comes after the partial closure of Madrid and other restrictions taken in Andalusia, Navarre or Galicia to combat the increase in contamination in Spain, where the pandemic has killed more than 33,000 people.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced after a meeting with officials of the 16 regional states new restrictions in the face of the largest increase on Wednesday in the number of cases in 24 hours in six months.
For example, the number of participants in private events will be limited in regions recording more than 35 new contaminations per 100,000 inhabitants over seven days.
In these areas, masks will be mandatory wherever people are close to each other for a period of time.
Gatherings will be limited to 25 people in public establishments and 15 in private rooms.
If the figure of 50 new contaminations per 100,000 inhabitants is crossed, even more draconian rules will be imposed, such as the limitation of private meetings to ten people from two households maximum and the closure of restaurants at 11:00 p.m.
- Donald Trump's son tested positive -
Barron Trump, 14, son of Donald and Melania Trump, has also tested positive for Covid-19, the First Lady of the United States announced on Wednesday, indicating that he had since been negative again.
"Barron is fine", simply indicated shortly after Donald Trump, asked about his last son when he left for Iowa where he was going to participate in his third campaign meeting in three days, 20 days before the election.
The pandemic has killed more than 1.087 million people worldwide since the end of December, according to an AFP report on Wednesday.
The United States has the most deaths (215,914), ahead of Brazil (151,747), India (110,586), Mexico (84,420) and the United Kingdom (43,018).
The G20 extended for six months on Wednesday, until June 30, the moratorium on the debt of the poorest countries hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, a measure deemed insufficient by NGOs.
The 20 richest countries in the world initially pledged in April to suspend the debt service of the countries most vulnerable to the health crisis until the end of the year.
burs-slb-cls / fjb / fby / plh
© 2020 AFP