Paris (AFP)
The government, which consults parties and unions on Thursday and Friday, wants to prepare the ground and minds for stricter health measures, including a possible third confinement, after having noted that the curfew at 6 pm "does not slow down sufficiently" l Covid-19 epidemic.
After several days of reflection at the top of the State, and while the more contagious variants of the virus raise fears of a further deterioration of the health situation, decisions will be taken "at the end of the week", confirmed on France Inter the carrier. word of the government, Gabriel Attal.
Among the tracks he announced the day before, the range goes from "maintaining the current framework", deemed "unlikely", to "very tight confinement".
Between these two terminals, are mentioned the possibility of a curfew coupled with confinement only on weekends or the extension of the February holidays with the ban on inter-regional travel, according to a government source.
"It is obviously possible to think about extending the holidays on one side or the other. But our goal is that the children can continue to learn", confirmed Gabriel Attal, while the Minister of Education, Jean- Michel Blanquer militates rather to "preserve the calendars as much as possible".
- "Pedagogy" -
Discussions are also underway on a possible tightening of the sanitary protocol in shops, especially supermarkets, said the president of the Système U sign, Dominique Schelcher.
Before new announcements, Prime Minister Jean Castex is due to conduct a series of consultations on Thursday and Friday with the presidents of political groups in Parliament, associations of elected officials and social partners.
An initiative which does not convince the oppositions, always critical: "the consultation begins after in reality the decisions have been taken", tweeted the number one of the PS Olivier Faure.
For his part, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, spoke at 2 p.m. to take stock of the health situation, and "share the scientific data base on which we will make our decisions", according to a source at the ministry, which speaks of a "teaching time".
While a new confinement was presented at the end of last week as probable, even inevitable, the government delayed, saying it wanted to wait for the results of the curfew at 6 p.m. with two weeks of decline, this weekend, and data on the spread of the more contagious English and South African variants.
The executive is looking for a "point of balance", with the need to "protect the French" without however "putting the country under cover", explained the boss of LREM deputies Christophe Castaner.
All against a background of questions about the population's fed up with health restrictions, while cafes, restaurants and cultural places have never reopened since their closure at the end of October.
Every day new indicators of economic degradation appear: for example, housing construction fell by 6.9% in 2020 and the trend looks even worse for the months to come, official government figures show Thursday.
The day before, employment figures showed that the number of unemployed increased by 7.5% in 2020 compared to the previous year.
- "Urgent" -
On Wednesday, Jean Castex questioned himself very cautiously during a call to youtubeur Gaspard Guermonprez on the possibility of bringing students "into the exceptions" in the event of re-containment, to meet the promise of Emmanuel Macron of a returning one day a week to university, after three months of closure of the lecture halls which isolated the young people.
But the government has also acknowledged the fact that the 6 p.m. curfew, in effect since January 16, "does not sufficiently slow down" the spread of the virus.
In addition, one in ten cases of Covid-19 in France could now be due to the English variant, which is more contagious, or three times more than during the first week of January, announced Gabriel Attal.
Tuesday, doctors from the Public Assistance-Hospitals of Paris (AP-HP) estimated that this progression augured a "very significant" increase in the number of patients.
However, the hospital burden is already high and increased in January.
In total, more than 27,000 Covid-19 patients were hospitalized in France on Wednesday, including more than 3,100 in intensive care, a figure also on the rise.
"It seems urgent to me, and we do not have time to wait, to strengthen the measures of social distancing", summarized the epidemiologist and director of research at Inserm Dominique Costagliola, during a situation update in front of the Academy of Sciences.
With 351 new deaths in hospital in 24 hours, 74,456 people affected by Covid-19 have died in France since the start of the epidemic, including 52,218 in hospital, the rest in nursing homes.
© 2021 AFP