Almost a third of the French will be reconfigured from Friday March 19 at midnight.

Prime Minister Jean Castex announced Thursday that residents of 16 departments will be subject to new confinement for at least a month to fight the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic.

These new "massive braking measures" will however be less strict than the first national confinement of just a year ago.

The departments concerned are those of the ĂŽle-de-France and Hauts-de-France regions, as well as Seine-Maritime, Eure and the southern Alpes-Maritimes.

This concerns 21 million inhabitants, including 12 million in the Paris region.

In these 16 departments, new massive measures to curb the epidemic will take place from midnight Friday evening, and for 4 weeks.


We are adopting a third way, a way that should allow braking without locking up.

pic.twitter.com/AkzukWf5O9

- Jean Castex (@JeanCASTEX) March 18, 2021

The government hopes at the end of the four weeks that a number of restrictions can be relaxed, government spokesman Gabriel Attal told RTL on Friday, the day after the Prime Minister's announcements.

Curfew pushed back, schools open

If the curfew is pushed back from one hour to 19 hours in metropolitan France, the inhabitants of the areas affected by this new confinement will only be able to leave their homes "within a radius limited to 10 kilometers", with a certificate, "without any time limit ".

Interregional travel will also be "prohibited, except for compelling or professional reasons".

As in the fall, schools and colleges will remain open normally but high schools will all switch to "half-gauge".

Education is fundamental for our children.


As announced by @JeanCASTEX, schools, colleges and high schools will remain open.


👉 The high schools of the departments concerned by the new health measures will switch to hybrid


👉 The sports practice of minors will be made more flexible pic.twitter.com/XJs1Z3512g

- Jean-Michel Blanquer (@jmblanquer) March 18, 2021

In order to "reduce the opportunities for contact in closed places", non-essential businesses will have to lower the curtain.

But, after their mobilization in the fall, bookstores and record stores have retained the right to remain open.

Which will not be the case with hairdressers.

These restrictions will be in place for "four weeks" and may be extended "to other parts of the territory" depending on the evolution of the virus, warned Prime Minister Jean Castex. 

With a cost of the new measures estimated at 1.2 billion euros more per month for public finances, according to the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire.

Still to avoid mergers, "all companies and administrations which can" will have to push "teleworking to the maximum" to put it in place "at least four days out of five", said Jean Castex.

A "pragmatic" decision

The "third wave", as the head of government calls it, will have got the better of Emmanuel Macron's stated desire on January 29 to avoid confinement and its cohort of economic, social and psychological suffering for the population.

"We have done well," said Jean Castex, praising the "pragmatism" of the government. 

However, a sign of hesitation on the part of the executive, this turn of the screw was finalized during a meeting Thursday at midday between Jean Castex and Emmanuel Macron while at the end of the Defense Council on Wednesday, " two hypotheses were on the table: confinement on weekends or 7 days a week, "said a source close to the executive.

And Jean Castex canceled a visit in principle scheduled for Friday morning in Nice, according to the town hall.

Because contrary to the hopes of Emmanuel Macron, the health situation is deteriorating rapidly, as feared by several epidemiologists: France recorded Thursday nearly 35,000 new cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours, exceeding the 30,000 mark for the second consecutive day, according to Public Health France.

The pressure on the intensive care units, welcoming the most serious patients, is on the rise, with 4,246 patients, against 4,219 the day before, a new high since the end of November.

More than a quarter of these patients are hospitalized in Ile-de-France.

"We're leaving in absurdity"

What to feed the opposition.

"Containment is what we do when we have missed everything," said Marine Le Pen (RN).

"The worm", quipped Jean-Luc MĂ©lenchon (LFI), going so far as to qualify Emmanuel Macron as "the genius of the doggie!". 

Great the partially deconfined confinement with curfew shifted to 7 p.m.



Macron, what a doggie genius! # Castex19h #Reconfinement #CouvreFeu

- Jean-Luc MĂ©lenchon (@JLMelenchon) March 18, 2021

Discontent also on the side of the shops.

"We leave in absurdity with this need, for supermarkets, to cover again part of the" non-essential "shelves, deplored Thursday to AFP Jacques Creyssel, general delegate of the Federation of Commerce and Distribution (FCD )

More than ever, the executive is counting on vaccination to get out of the crisis, with the end of the suspension of AstraZeneca serum which has received the green light from the European regulator.

To reassure, Jean Castex will also be vaccinated himself on Friday.

Despite this suspension, the vaccination campaign continued to progress: 5,748,698 people received at least one injection and 2,393,568 had their two doses, according to the Directorate General of Health.

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