Paris (AFP)

23:50.

At the back of a restaurant in Strasbourg, at the last table still occupied, Taylor, an American tourist who was finishing his dinner with three friends, is agitated.

He wasn't quite sure how to get home: he had only a vague idea of ​​what the government announcements entailed.

"We'll try to take a cab, and if not, we'll walk fast. I think we better go ..."

In a bar-restaurant a few streets away, Océane Bensaadi, a law student, celebrates her 20th birthday.

But not as she expected.

"I thought I was celebrating it as it should be, 20 years is not nothing! I wanted to have a party and enjoy the night without restriction", she confides with a certain bitterness.

In total, 54 departments, in addition to Polynesia, will now be subject to a night curfew which will apply from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. with fines in the event of non-compliance.

A week after Ile-de-France residents and inhabitants of large metropolitan areas, 46 million French people have had to give up their evening in freedom, i.e. two thirds of the population, including in certain rural areas with a low density of residents.

- General alert -

"We have to do that", explained President Emmanuel Macron, while a new record of 42,032 cases of Covid-19 was reached in 24 hours on Friday, bringing the total to 1,041,075 confirmed cases since the start of the epidemic in March.

The test positivity rate continues to climb, reaching 15.1% against 14.3% the day before, against only 4.5% in early September.

The toll is also growing every day, with 298 new deaths, bringing the total to at least 34,508 deaths.

In order not to be overwhelmed by the second wave which breaks and which could turn out to be "worse than the first", as feared Martin Hirsh, the general manager of the AP-HP, the hospital has already sounded the general alert : provision of additional resuscitation beds, deprogramming of operations, cancellation of leave and call for volunteers have been decided.

"In this phase we are in, we have no other choice, given the number of infections per day, than to reduce our social life as much as possible (...) if we really want to preserve our health system and our fellow citizens ", explained Emmanuel Macron after a meeting with the teams of the René-Dubos hospital center in Pontoise (Val-d'Oise).

For the Head of State, "it is too early today to say whether we are going towards local or wider reconfigurations", because it is necessary to wait "for the middle of next week (to have) a clearer vision of the impact of the measures "taken.

But in any case, we will have to live with the virus "at best until the summer of 2021", he warned.

- The same coronavirus -

For his part, Prime Minister Jean Castex is already preparing minds for difficult times.

He had already warned Thursday that if the epidemic was not contained, the government should "consider much tougher measures".

"Everything is on the table", estimated Friday on BFM TV Professor Arnaud Fontanet, member of the Scientific Council which guides the government, explaining that "the virus circulates faster than in spring", and that it is " exactly "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.

In any case, the state of health emergency will be extended until February 16 inclusive.

The executive has adopted a bill for this purpose in the Council of Ministers.

Requiring a vote in Parliament, it will be examined on Saturday 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