Paris (AFP)
The winter holidays started on Saturday for some French schoolchildren, in a gloomy climate for tourism and an extremely fragile epidemic context, the health agency judging that new restrictive measures will be necessary in the near future.
Holidaymakers from Lyon, Bordeaux or even Grenoble (zone A), who kicked off the holiday period until March 8, can move freely between regions, the government having chosen not to limit them to the interior of the country.
In Grenoble, the station hall sounded strangely hollow on Saturday morning.
"Usually, the first Saturday of the holidays, it is teeming with people," said an SNCF agent, arms folded.
Behind him, a sparse stream of holidaymakers get off a TGV just arrived from Paris, like Mélanie, Mélina and Lola, who are heading for the Deux Alpes to "enjoy the ski resorts while they are still open".
Those who leave are called on to be extremely careful, as they had already been during the end of the year celebrations.
"Now is not the time to relax our efforts," Prime Minister Jean Castex warned Thursday.
Without ski lifts in ski resorts, with a curfew maintained at 6:00 p.m., the curtains of bars and restaurants still lowered and cultural venues closed, these holidays are set to be subdued for tourism.
- Undecided vacationers -
In Azet, in the Hautes-Pyrénées, near the Spanish border, Sylvie Guinet's lodging, usually full during this holiday period, has only one room in five reserved.
"It's really not easy. If I make 20% of my turnover last season it will already be good," she told AFP.
"People book and then cancel at the last moment, especially with all the uncertainties related to the announcement or not of a confinement", she breathes, while understanding undecided holidaymakers "for whom it is not easy to stay locked in their room from 6:00 p.m. ".
Morale seems a little better in Cauterets, a small village resort in the Pyrenees, which attracts holidaymakers from Bordeaux, but also from Charente, Vendée or Brittany.
Cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, ski touring ...: the area allows families to enjoy the snow without having to ski lifts, says Vincent Doutres, director of the Cauterets tourist office.
But "we must not kid ourselves, we are in sub-activity", he emphasizes.
If the government has again ruled out at this stage to confine the country, except in Mayotte, the threat of more restrictive measures persists, given the extremely tense health context.
- Fear of aggravation -
The circulation of the coronavirus has stabilized "at a very high level", Public Health France (SpF) noted in its weekly bulletin on Friday.
This situation "does not allow us to rule out the hypothesis of a worsening of the epidemiological situation in the coming weeks, linked to the continued circulation (of) more contagious variants" of the coronavirus, notes the health agency.
In this case, "stricter" measures will become "necessary", explained Daniel Levy-Bruhl, head of the respiratory infections unit of SpF on Friday.
The proportion of cases suspected of being variants (English, South African or Brazilian) of the SARS-CoV2 virus amounted to 14% of all cases detected in France on January 27, with a rate close to 20% in Ile -de-France, according to preliminary results released Thursday.
As of January 7-8, the proportion of the British variant had been measured at 3.3% of positive cases.
Penetration in France is "much slower" than in other countries, "probably by the combination of a certain number of measures which have been taken and brakes", analyzed the virologist Bruno Lina, in charge of this mapping.
- A third vaccine -
After increasing throughout the month of January, the number of patients hospitalized with a Covid diagnosis stabilized this week just under 28,000 people.
Among them, 3,235 patients were treated in the intensive care unit, or about 60% of the capacity before the health crisis.
Hospital pressure therefore remains strong, to the point that "many of our hospitals" still "have to shift less urgent care to free beds," said Jean Castex.
The disease has killed 78,603 people since the start of the epidemic.
The vaccination campaign is continuing, against a backdrop of still limited supplies and logistical constraints.
From this weekend, doses of the third vaccine available in the European Union, that of AstraZeneca, will be injected - the decree appeared in the Official Journal on Saturday.
It will be given as a priority to caregivers under 65.
Regarding compliance with the curfew, a major control operation took place Friday evening in Ile-de-France, giving rise to 339 fines for lack of certification or non-wearing of the mask, said the Paris police headquarters. .
Since the establishment, on December 15, of a national curfew first at 8:00 p.m., 188,402 reports have been drawn up in France, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
burs-juc / fmp / bat
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