Paris (AFP)

The mayor (PS) of Paris Anne Hidalgo asked Prime Minister Jean Castex to "leave room for breathing in Parisians", his entourage told AFP, before the possible announcement Thursday of a reconfinement of the Island- of France.

"Whatever scenario is chosen, we must leave room for breathing in Parisians," insisted the mayor, according to his entourage, during the telephone interview Wednesday evening with Prime Minister Jean Castex and the police chief Didier Lallement.

The two hypotheses mentioned during this meeting are total containment or weekend containment with maintenance of the curfew during the week, according to the same source.

Without commenting on "the most suitable type of confinement" for the capital, still according to her entourage, Ms. Hidalgo asked that Parisians be able "to go out a little longer than an hour and a little further than a kilometer "from their home.

"If we do a weekend containment in the Ile-de-France region, what about this curfew at 6 pm? It will be very difficult to bear. We know that a large part of the contaminations are done inside and there , we will reduce people to stay indoors, ”Ms. Hidalgo said in an interview on TV5 Monde broadcast on Thursday.

"If this is the government's assumption, (it will) still have to have time to walk outside. (...) We cannot reduce people to just work and go home. is inhuman, I find, "she added.

According to those around him, the mayor of Paris, a potential presidential candidate, also called on the government to "put the package on vaccination" and "massively develop saliva tests" in order to ensure that schools are kept open. case of new confinement.

In this regard, she ruled out that schools could remain open but canteens closed.

The executive must announce Thursday at 7:00 p.m. new restrictions in Ile-de-France and Hauts-de-France to try to slow down the "third wave" of the Covid-19 epidemic which will "hit very hard" until 'in mid-April according to President Emmanuel Macron.

For the 12 million Ile-de-France residents and the 6 million inhabitants of Hauts-de-France, Jean Castex mentioned three scenarios to parliamentarians on Wednesday: confinement at the weekend, confinement as in November or confinement like that spring 2020.

Valérie Pécresse, president of the Ile-de-France region, told the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health on Wednesday that "the confinement during the weekend is certainly painful, but less than the total confinement", and asked the executive of "visibility", stressed a relative.

Anne Hidalgo will participate in a meeting Thursday afternoon with the police headquarters, the regional prefecture, the Regional Health Agency (ARS) and the mayors of the district.

This meeting, initially scheduled for Tuesday, had been postponed pending clarification from the executive.

© 2021 AFP