Strasbourg (AFP)

The president (LR) of the Grand Est region, Jean Rottner, and the mayor (PS) of Nancy, Mathieu Klein, called on Monday for a local re-containment, deemed "inevitable" by the latter in the face of the rebound of the epidemic of Covid-19 in the region.

"The curve is not horizontal, it goes up in terms of circulation of the virus, and therefore the question arises of having to resort to a new containment", Jean Rottner, emergency doctor, told AFP on the eve of 'a new health defense council at the Elysee.

"The sooner the better and if there is a decision to be made, I hope it will be taken tomorrow, and that we will not wait another week," he stressed.

For Jean Rottner, confinement introduced during the end of year vacation period "will have less of an impact on economic and educational activity" than a possible re-confinement "forced and forced back to school".

"I think that the prospect of reconfinement is an inevitable prospect today", for his part declared Mathieu Klein on France Info, while leaving to the State the care of fixing the perimeter, which could be that of the region or metropolis.

"Here in the Grand Est, and particularly in Lorraine and Nancy (...) the circulation of the virus has accelerated sharply for two weeks, three weeks", argued the mayor of Nancy.

"Very worried", he spoke of a "very tense" situation in the hospital even before Christmas and New Year's Eve.

"In a fortnight, at the Nancy hospital, we went from 117 to 163 patients hospitalized for the Covid", these now occupying "half of the intensive care beds", he said.

"The Covid has entered the hospital, clusters exist", underlined Mathieu Klein, lamenting that we wait "for a situation to deteriorate to take measures when we could show more anticipation".

The mayor of Nancy had already launched a similar appeal last week, as did the mayor (LR) of Reims Arnaud Robinet.

The weekly incidence rate of Covid-19 rose in the Grand Est from 218.4 to 240.6 per 100,000 inhabitants between December 17 and 24, according to figures from Public Health France, against a weaker acceleration, from 135.3 to 149.8, at the national level.

© 2020 AFP