Paris (AFP)

Defense Council Tuesday and Wednesday at the Elysee Palace, party leaders and social partners received at Matignon: France is heading straight for a "hardening" of measures to combat the Covid-19 epidemic which is taking a "critical" turn, with the fear of containment on everyone's mind.

The number of confirmed positive cases increased by 26,771 in 24 hours, according to figures from Public Health France on Monday.

The day before, France had broken a new record with more than 50,000 positive cases confirmed in one day.

And the number of intensive care patients continues to climb, increasing the pressure on hospitals.

"We had expected that there would be this second wave but we ourselves are surprised by the brutality of what has been happening for ten days", underlined on RTL the president of the Scientific Council, Jean-François Delfraissy , who fears that the real number of contamination is "around 100,000 cases per day".

"The second wave will probably be stronger than the first" and "many of our fellow citizens have not yet realized what awaits us", judged the president of the body which guides the government, speaking of a "critical" situation, for which "two hypotheses" are on the table.

The second hypothesis is "to go directly to containment", but "less hard" and shorter than that from March to May.

It "would probably make it possible to maintain a school activity and a certain number of economic activities", with increased recourse to telework.

"A re-containment seems plausible, it has been done in Israel and Australia with great success," said epidemiologist Antoine Flahault on BFMTV for his part.

One of the solutions he recommends is not to reopen colleges, high schools and universities on November 2 after the All Saints holidays.

"Primary schools could remain open but should impose the wearing of a mask, even for children over 6 years old", thinks Professor Flahault, while the mask is for the moment compulsory only from middle school.

These are the possibilities in particular that the Defense Councils will study in the coming days.

They should also be at the heart of discussions between Prime Minister Jean Castex and representatives of the various political forces.

- Criticism of oppositions, concern of employers -

But the prospect of a possible reconfinement is already provoking criticism from the various oppositions - PS, LR, rebellious France or the National Assembly - who criticize the government for its "lack of foresight", "lack of anticipation" or lack of consultation.

If the hypothesis of a general reconfinement is no longer taboo, France has already entered partial confinement, since two in three French people are now subject to a night curfew.

This concerns 54 departments in addition to Polynesia, or 46 million French people deprived of travel between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.

"The curfew is a risky bet (...) If we are not effective at all, we will have to confine," warned on France Info Éric Caumes, head of the infectious disease department of the Paris hospital of the Pitié-Salpêtrière (AP-HP).

"If we completely reconfine as we did in March, it is no less 10% of recession that we risk, it is a collapse of the economy", however warned the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux from Bézieux, on RMC.

On the night of Monday to Tuesday, the deputies voted in first reading the first phase of the recovery plan, 22 billion in 2021 out of the 100 billion planned by 2022, a plan supposed to allow France to bounce back from the economic recession.

In March, confinement was decided to prevent the hospital system from creaking under an excessive influx of Covid patients.

On Monday, 2,761 seriously ill patients from Covid were hospitalized in intensive care, for a total of 5,800 sheaves beds throughout France.

The epidemic has killed 35,018 people in the country since its inception, according to figures from Public Health France.

© 2020 AFP