Paris (AFP)

Thirty-eight new departments are preparing to apply the night curfew on Friday, at a time when the level of contamination reached records in France, hit hard by the second wave of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Between Wednesday and Thursday, 41,622 new cases of Covid-19 were detected, a jump of 15,000 cases in 24 hours.

A level never seen since the launch of large-scale tests in France.

According to the latest report from Public Health France, 165 patients from Covid-19 have died in the last 24 hours.

Believing that "the situation is serious", Mr. Castex warned that if the epidemic was not contained, the government should "consider much tougher measures".

"There is still time to avoid it, but we don't have much time left."

"Everything is on the table", estimated Friday on BFM TV Professor Arnaud Fontanet, member of the Scientific Council, who guides the government, explaining that "the virus circulates faster than in spring", but that it is "exactly" from the same coronavirus, with "the same age distribution" and "the same symptoms".

Containment "general, I do not hope because we are doing everything to avoid it, local is one of the options," continued the epidemiologist.

- "Play together" -

"There has been the perception, for a few months, that either the second wave did not exist, or that it was a wave. The situation is the opposite: it is possible that the second wave is worse than the first" , estimated Martin Hirsch, Director General of Public Assistance - Paris Hospitals (AP-HP), on RTL.

The median age of people sick with Covid-19 and admitted to intensive care in AP-HP hospitals is 62 years old.

"We are collectively on the crest line", insisted Etienne Gayat, anesthetist and crisis medical director at Lariboisière hospital, on LCI.

To curb the circulation of the virus and avoid "the saturation of the health system", "we must play collectively," he recalled.

In total, 54 departments and 46 million inhabitants, in addition to Polynesia, are now subject to a nighttime curfew that will come into effect overnight from Friday to Saturday at midnight.

It will apply from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. and will result in fines for non-compliance.

These measures will weigh on the economy, warned Friday on Europe 1 the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, with the possibility "of having a negative growth figure" in the fourth quarter.

In an attempt to cushion the economic consequences, the support measures will be extended to all the departments concerned, for "an overall cost of just over 2 billion euros", he said.

Performers in the performing arts and cinema, particularly affected by the curfew, learned on Thursday that they would respectively receive 85 million and 30 million euros in additional aid to get through the health crisis.

- Prolonged state of health emergency -

On Thursday, the new version of the virus "tracing" application, renamed "Tous anti-Covid", was presented by the Secretary of State in charge of Digital, Cédric O. It replaces StopCovid which had only been downloaded 2, 6 million times since early June.

Problems were encountered Thursday on "All anti-Covid", due to "too great an influx of people at the same time on the application", but they have been resolved, said Cédric O on Friday on France 2.

"Its first features will be enhanced every two weeks," he said Thursday, in particular with the integration of the exit certificate or restaurant registration registers.

The executive has also adopted in the Council of Ministers a bill to extend the state of health emergency until February 16, 2021 inclusive.

Requiring a vote in Parliament, it will be considered this weekend in the National Assembly.

The executive also intends to be able to apply measures to restrict movement, 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 text.

© 2020 AFP