Emmanuel Macron during a trip to the René Dubos hospital in Pontoise, in the Val d'Oise, October 23, 2020. -

Lemouton / POOL / SIPA

  • Excluded a few weeks ago, the hypothesis of a reconfinement is at the heart of the debates this week.

  • The executive must assess in the coming days whether the nighttime curfew has had an effect on the spread of the coronavirus.

    Two defense councils are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday around Emmanuel Macron.

  • But the number of new daily cases continues to rise, alarming doctors and the government.

The curves continue to climb.

Ten days after the first localized curfews were put in place, the coronavirus is circulating more and more in France, increasing pressure on the government.

The latter no longer excludes any option to slow the epidemic resumption.

Not even that of a new confinement, yet ruled out a few weeks ago.

The executive has accelerated its schedule and is increasing the number of meetings, in order to announce potential bad news.

A review of the curfew during the week

Emmanuel Macron's agenda has been revised so that he is fully dedicated to the coronavirus crisis.

His trip to Le Creusot to discuss nuclear power was canceled "because of the health context", according to the Elysee.

Two health defense councils have been scheduled, Tuesday morning then Wednesday morning.

Prime Minister Jean Castex will bring together party leaders and social partners in Matignon on Tuesday and a meeting of ministers was also added to his agenda on Wednesday evening, according to BFMTV.

The government must examine the epidemiological situation and draw an initial assessment of the night curfew imposed from October 16 in one region and eight metropolises.

When he announced this measure, Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to go from 20,000 new dailies to 3,000 to 5,000 cases, well below the latest report, which reports ... 52,000 cases recorded in twenty-four hours on Sunday.

“We will see if this measure has resulted in a sufficient inflection of the contaminations curve,” explains Olivier Véran's firm today, without announcing quantified objectives.

"Depending on the observations, more restrictive measures may be taken", adds the entourage of the Minister of Health, taking care, however, not to pronounce the word "reconfinement".

Reconfinement is no longer a "taboo"

However, this hypothesis is no longer "taboo", according to the deputy La République en Marche Bruno Bonnell.

“Until now, we forbade ourselves, we said that it is too expensive, that the country would not recover from it.

But today, given the state of the epidemic, the question of containment is no longer taboo, ”continues the elected representative of the Rhône, who contracted Covid-19 several days ago.

Because for some, the curfew, extended on October 22 to a total of 46 million French people, is not enough.

The Scientific Council, consulted by the government, said on Monday, through the voice of its president, questioned on RTL, "surprised by the brutality of what has been happening for ten days".

To curb the second wave, the doctor Jean-François Delfraissy sees "two hypotheses": amplify the curfew before reconfiguring if that was not enough, or then directly reconfining the country.

Head of the infectious disease department of the Parisian hospital of Pitié-Salpêtrière (AP-HP), Eric Caumes, warned this Monday on France Info: “The curfew is a risky bet.

If we are not efficient at all, we will have to confine, there will be no other solutions.

"

Fears for the economy

On the other hand, the economic world is alarmed by this assumption.

"If we completely reconfine as we did in March, it is not less than 10% of recession that we risk, it is a collapse of the economy", estimated the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux of Bézieux on RMC.

Sign that the idea is gaining ground, some elected officials are now debating the modalities of a reconfinement.

"I am certain that we are heading towards containment," tweeted Sunday Jean Rottner, President of the Republicans of the Grand Est region.

"If reconfinement there must be in ten days or in fifteen days, let's talk about it already now, that one prepares the French", he pleaded this Monday on BFMTV.

His counterpart in Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur, Renaud Muselier, in

Le Parisien

, calls

on the government not to make “total” re-containment, in order to preserve school, culture and economic life.

The executive should try to ensure a consensus by bringing together the party leaders in Matignon on Tuesday, then the social partners.

He will have to arbitrate quickly, because he fears that the situation will worsen with the onset of winter.

“For the past week, the acceleration in the spread of the virus seems to be catalyzed by cooler temperatures.

It is observed everywhere in Europe, ”notes the Ministry of Health.

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  • Confinement

  • Curfew

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Government