Paris (AFP)
Police and gendarme checks will be intensified "from Thursday" ahead of an Easter weekend "at high risk" to enforce health measures to fight against Covid-19, Gerald Darmanin said on Tuesday.
These controls will take place "on the tolls, in the stations, to prevent the French from not respecting the rule of 10 kilometers (radius of movement around the home except for compelling reasons, editor's note), until Monday-Tuesday", declared the Minister of the Interior on the sidelines of his monthly press conference devoted to the activity of his ministry.
"It is a question of underlining the importance during this weekend at high risk of not leaving its territory", added the minister.
While many religious services will be held, Gérald Darmanin recalled that the police will also be mobilized to "control places of worship to fight against terrorism".
A Defense Council is being held around Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday to take stock of the pandemic.
Last weekend, 100,000 curfew checks were carried out in France, giving rise to 17,000 fines, according to figures from Beauvau.
The 19 departments concerned by the reinforced health measures concentrate 60% of these checks and nearly half - 8,000 - of the reports.
Since December 15 and the end of the second confinement, 5.2 million checks have been carried out and more than 500,000 verbalizations have been drawn up, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
A very large majority of them relate to "travel offenses" (480,664), before the failure to present a PCR test, compulsory to leave the territory (19,525) and participation in prohibited gatherings and meetings (14,835 ).
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