The Pas-de-Calais will be the only one of the departments under reinforced surveillance to be confined at the weekend, while the Île-de-France will not suffer the same fate.

More generally, the executive wants to reduce the constraints weighing on all French people, with a target set for mid-April.

DECRYPTION

Several of the measures announced Thursday evening by Jean Castex, during his press conference with Olivier Véran, are already known.

This is how the suspense ended for 12 million Ile-de-France residents on Wednesday evening: despite a very poor health situation due to the coronavirus and resuscitation services on the verge of saturation, Paris and Île-de-France did not will not be confined on weekends.

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Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation Wednesday March 3

It was an option seriously considered by the executive but it encountered opposition from some local officials such as the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo.

In the absence of political consensus, it is therefore a status quo in Paris.

"We are on a case-by-case basis," explains one at the Elysee.

"If there is a political consensus, we can go there. But it is not present everywhere, as in Île-de-France or in the south-east."

For his part, Emmanuel Macron believes that we can still afford not to re-define the capital.

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Acceleration of vaccination

The situation is not the same in Pas-de-Calais, the only department that will be confined over the weekend, specifies a government source, in addition to Dunkirk and Nice. 

For the twenty departments still under surveillance, Jean Castex could still announce new restrictions and an acceleration of vaccinations in these areas.

From next weekend, it will intensify in all departments with increased vigilance.

The doses will therefore no longer be distributed according to the number of inhabitants but according to the number of people hospitalized in a department.

A trip by Olivier Véran on this theme should take place on Friday. 

More firmness?

These announcements, which will be officially made Thursday evening at 6 p.m. by the Prime Minister, illustrate the difficulties at the state summit on the management of the pandemic.

Some are pleading within the government for more firmness.

On the Élysée side, we want to reduce the constraints weighing on the French as much as possible.

The goal is to save time on the virus by hoping that the vaccination and the return of spring will quickly return to normal life.

"The return to a more normal life is in sight (...) perhaps from mid-April," government spokesman Gabriel Attal said at noon on Wednesday.