The government again at a time of difficult choices: Prime Minister Jean Castex is due to announce new restrictions on Thursday, March 18 at a press conference initially scheduled for 6 p.m. but postponed by one hour to hear the opinion of the 'European Medicines Agency on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has been suspended in France and several EU countries.

These additional measures will first concern the 12 million Ile-de-France residents and the 6 million inhabitants of Hauts-de-France, two regions particularly affected by the marked acceleration in the circulation of the virus in France, with more than 38,000 infections in 24 hours according to the latest report.

Jean Castex spoke on Wednesday of three scenarios for these two regions before parliamentarians: confinement at the weekend, confinement as in November or confinement like that of spring 2020.

"An impossible life"

But even before being announced, a reconfinement, even partial, is already judged with severity by the opposition and certain scientists.

For her part, the socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, asked Prime Minister Jean Castex to "leave room for breathing in Parisians".

According to information from radio France Bleu, Emmanuel Macron seems to exclude the hypothesis of a reconfinement at the weekend in Île-de-France.

"Life in this region is still a little different, confinement on weekends is a measure that is complicated to take," said the head of state during a video conference with mayors of the region on Wednesday evening .

"We have people who come home very late every evening", he said, "we cannot reconfigure them from Friday evening to Sunday evening, it's a life that is impossible," he said. he adds.

If the hypothesis of confinement is still on the table, Emmanuel Macron would be looking for a third way, in particular with a reinforcement of teleworking, in order to avoid taking measures that are increasingly difficult to make accept to French after more than a year of health crisis.

With AFP

The summary of the week

France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application

google-play-badge_FR