Paris (AFP)
Border controls, threats to traders tempted to defy bans: the government is looking big in the hope of reversing the Covid-19 epidemic without resorting to confinement, a week before the start of the school holidays.
At terminal 2E at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport, a compelling reason is now required to be able to leave the European Union, a consequence of the new measures decided on Friday by the executive.
The executive is counting in particular on this new turn of the screw at the borders - a negative PCR test is also required to return from an EU country - and on the closure of non-food shopping centers of more than 20,000 square meters , added to the curfew at 6 p.m. for two weeks, to channel the circulation of the coronavirus, without going for the third time through the confinement box.
- Sanctions -
"We made the choice to do everything to avoid a reconfinement. The counterpart (...) is obviously that the current rules, and in particular the curfew at 6:00 p.m., are fully respected", explained on franceinfo the door - government speech, Gabriel Attal.
For his part, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, threatened on RTL illegal restaurants to suspend “for a month” their access to the solidarity fund, and definitively in the event of a repeat offense.
Sanctions applied to all businesses that break the rules, says Bercy.
Will this set of measures be enough to avoid another turn of the screw?
A point will be made during a new defense council around the Head of State on Wednesday, but except for soaring indicators, no new decision is expected this week, a source close to the AFP told AFP. executive.
This same source sees the holidays as a positive factor, the period implying a decrease in mixing in schools and at work.
In the meantime, the world of culture does not see the end of the restrictions, with cinemas, theaters and museums closed since the end of October.
Monday at midday on the forecourt of the Gare du Nord in Paris, a collective of artists called "We open" carried out a flash action, by deploying golden survival blankets and by performing, under the astonished gaze travellers.
"It's so that we are not forgotten," said one of the artists, Alice Vivier.
On Sunday, nearly 20,000 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in 24 hours, a stable level.
According to the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, this stability allows "to observe, for a few days, what will happen", without immediately taking a drastic decision.
The circulation of the more contagious English variant "is intensifying - by 50% every week - but less intensely than abroad where increases of 70 to 100% have been noted", he also noted on Sunday , based on the preliminary results of a second investigation of the positive cases.
- "Right balance" -
On the other hand, the margins are still reduced at the hospital, with 27,500 Covid-19 patients across the country (3,000 more than on January 10), a figure now close to the peaks of the first and second waves (32,000 and 33,000).
The situation is less critical for resuscitations, with more than 3,100 patients, a little less than the peaks of previous waves (4,900 in the fall, 7,000 in the spring).
In total, last week, some 3,000 people with Covid-19 died in hospitals and nursing homes, a total of more than 76,000 since the start of the epidemic.
"The war of attrition is much more deadly than the viral raid," geneticist Axel Kahn commented on LCI.
"In Paris, we are almost at a saturation threshold" synonymous with deprogramming of interventions, also warned on BFM-TV Dr Eric Caumes, head of the infectious and tropical diseases department at the Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital.
The doctor said he understood the government's surprise decision not to reconfine the country.
"If you focus on health, it's a bad decision, but if you take into account all the parameters, which is the role of policies, it is a balance, and you have to measure the happy medium", a he declared, highlighting the "mental and social" health of the population.
In this tense context, France is continuing its vaccination campaign, the pace of which has been slowed down by a drop in supplies.
More than 1.485 million people had received at least one dose on Sunday, but Olivier Véran regretted "that nearly 50,000 appointments had to be postponed".
The rest will depend on the conditions under which the High Authority for Health (HAS) will give its green light to the AstraZeneca vaccine on Tuesday (at 5.15 p.m.), the first doses of which must arrive "from the end of the week or the beginning of next week", promised the Secretary of State for European Affairs Clément Beaune.
Will this vaccine be recommended in France for the elderly?
German and Italian specialist authorities have advised against it, for lack of data on its effectiveness, thus taking the opposite view of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which gave the green light on Friday.
© 2021 AFP