No New Lockdown for France But Early Curfew will be Enforced
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No New Lockdown for France But Early Curfew will be Enforced
Much to the relief of French citizens, France’s health minister announced that the government will not impose a new lockdown to suppress the spread of Covid-19. However, the health minister added that they will be establishing an earlier curfew anytime soon, especially in the eastern parts of the country as those are massively affected by the virus.
Even as the daily cases of coronavirus still exceeded the government’s target of less than 5,000, Health Minister Veran said there are no plans for a third lockdown. He said that they are eliminating the option of imposing a new lockdown whether on a national or local level. Curfews however, will be extended starting from 6:00 pm instead of 8:00 pm in high risk locations.
Some local leaders in cities like Nice, are clamoring for tighter restrictions rather than have another lockdown imposed in their locality. Tighter restrictions would include the earlier start of curfew at 6:00 pm and stricter border controls.
Current Situation in France Concerning Covid-19
The country has been under two lockdowns so far and is currently the country with the highest count of cases in Western Europe at 2.57 million, while ranking fifth worldwide. The country’s coronavirus death toll of 64,078 deaths, is ranked the seventh highest worldwide.
The first lockdown in the country started March 17 until May 11, while the second lockdown began from October 30 to December 15 in 2020. Subsequently after the lockdowns were lifted, nationwide curfew from 8:00 pm to 6:00 am is still enforced, while cultural locations remain closed as there was no sign of improvement.
It has been earlier announced by health authorities of the country that in a matter of 24 hours, there were 11,395 new cases of the virus, bringing the threshold to above 10,000 threshold for the first time in four days. Currently, the seven-day moving average of new infections, recorded weekly stands at 11,871.
Although the country gradually started the vaccination campaign last Sunday, the number of people who were hospitalized from the virus also increased within the fourth day. France started the campaign by giving a 78 years old woman her first shot of the vaccine.