Paris (AFP)

Jean Castex will announce Thursday that a "number of departments will switch to maximum alert" in the face of the progression of the Covid-19 epidemic, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday.

A sign of the executive's concern, it is the Prime Minister, and not the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, who will hold this press point on Thursday at 5 p.m., even if Mr. Véran as well as the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot and Secretary of State Cédric O will also be present.

Several new metropolises should therefore be affected by a curfew, six days after the one established between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. in eight large cities as well as Paris and Ile-de-France.

At its highest in some cities affected by the curfew, such as Saint-Etienne (716), Lille (675), Lyon (582), Grenoble (460), the incidence rate, i.e. the number of new cases in seven days per 100,000 inhabitants, is also on the rise in Clermont-Ferrand (322), Tours (237) or Nantes (194).

In the Strasbourg Eurometropolis, where it is now close to the maximum alert threshold, the incidence rate "doubles every week", notes the Regional Health Agency of Grand Est.

On Wednesday, the prime minister, in a meeting with party leaders, was questioned about whether the curfew would be brought forward to 7 p.m. in some cities.

"He did not respond," reported the national secretary of Europe Ecology Les Verts Julien Bayou.

But the Minister of Health announced, during this meeting, of "an important evolution of contamination", added the boss of LR, Christian Jacob.

By holding a press conference on Thursday, Jean Castex is back in the front line while, for the first time since May, the total number of Covid-19 patients currently in intensive care exceeded the 2,000 mark on Monday evening.

It is still far from the peak of the epidemic, when more than 7,000 Covid-19 patients were in shifts.

But more than 150 serious cases enter these peak services every day and they were 278 more on Tuesday.

The government has warned that curfews will not take effect for two to three weeks.

"This virus is a liner, it takes time to get it moving, said Gabriel Attal. At the time of the general containment of the country, it took 18 days before the first very slight decrease was observed."

In the meantime, the contamination figures are soaring.

Thus the incidence rate exceeds the maximum alert threshold (250) in 22 departments on October 16, against 10 a week earlier - and only one two weeks before, according to data available on Public Health France.

Faced with this upsurge, the executive wants to extend the state of health emergency until February 16, 2021 inclusive, according to a bill presented Wednesday in the Council of Ministers.

The executive also intends to be able to apply measures of movement restrictions, gatherings or the opening of establishments at least until April 1, 2021, on all or part of the territory and depending on the epidemic situation, according to the same text.

The National Assembly will sit exceptionally on Saturday and Sunday to examine this bill which will then be sent back to the Senate.

Restored last Saturday by simple decree, the state of health emergency is currently in force until November 16.

The extension beyond one month of this exceptional regime requires a vote in Parliament.

© 2020 AFP