Covid-19 in France: the government is still delaying

Prime Minister Jean Castex is due to announce new measures this Thursday, March 4.

AP - Stephane de Sakutin

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

According to corroborating sources, only the Pas-de-Calais department will be confined over the weekend.

Neither Paris and Ile-de-France, nor any other of the 20 departments placed under enhanced surveillance will be. 

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Of the 20 departments placed under enhanced surveillance, only Pas-de-Calais should be re-defined.

The government has proposed that there be a lockdown for the next three weekends, a government source told AFP.

A decision taken in consultation with elected officials who demanded strong measures while the hospitals in this territory are saturated. 

No department of Ile-de-France or Provence-Alpes-Côtes d'Azur will therefore be affected by local confinement.

Targeted measures will however be taken: compulsory wearing of a mask, ban on the sale of alcohol in certain districts, gauges in shops ... They will be announced this Thursday by Jean Castex.

" Win time "

"

It was not worth the blow to pass in force

 ", justifies one in the entourage of the head of government.

While confinement on weekends is rejected in most departments by local elected officials, Emmanuel Macron and his Prime Minister have therefore preferred to avoid a standoff, observes

Julien Chavanne

, from the political service of RFI.

For this time.

" 

We can still save time and make progress on vaccination,

 " hopes a government adviser.

The executive thus plays the game of consultation, of the case-by-case strategy until the end.

Without excluding, despite everything, imposing confinement at the weekend if the situation worsened.

" 

We did it in Dunkirk, we could do it elsewhere,

 " slips a ministerial source.

In the last 24 hours, 26,788 new cases of contamination have been recorded, after about 23,000 the day before, according to Public Health France.

This Wednesday evening, 3,637 people were in intensive care, against 3,586 the day before.

A level of occupancy similar to that at the beginning of December, at the end of the second epidemic wave of the coronavirus, but far from the peak of the second wave of autumn (4,900) and especially of the first in spring (7,000 ).

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