France will resume a nationwide lockdown on Thursday night in a bid to stem the progress of the Covid-19 epidemic.
The lockdown will continue until at least December 1st.
President Emmanuel Macron said he hopes to raise it by Christmas.
“The virus is spreading in France at a rate that even the most pessimistic person would not expect,” Macron said in a televised speech. The number of contaminants doubled in two weeks. Yesterday, 527 of our Companions Kovid-19 passed away. Yesterday we counted about 3,000 people in the intensive care unit, which is more than half of our national capacity.
In the seven days from October 19 to 26, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control reported 254,000 new Kovid-19 cases in France, making it the fastest-growing European country in the world.
This lockdown will be different from the 55 days of closure last spring in three main ways: primary and secondary schools will remain open, however, universities will be required to teach online. Patients in care homes can receive visitors, who wear masks and social distances. Public services will be open.
Bars and restaurants will be closed to all except Takeaway. Unnecessary shops should be closed. Citizens and residents are required to fill out a form each time they go to work or exercise to care for a close relative, attend a medical appointment, or purchase groceries.
Macron said he would end the journey between French territories, but did not say how far people could go from home. He also did not say whether the time outside would be limited to one hour a day, as in the spring. The government will provide more details on Thursday.
Unlike last spring, Macron said the epidemic has affected the entire country. Hospitals have been forced to cancel major heart and cancer surgeries, which in some cases have been postponed since the spring.
The President said that Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain had already taken tougher measures than us. “We are one of the European Union countries that has been conducting the most experiments for weeks.
“We must respect the preventive measures … Like all our neighbors, we are drowning in a virus that seems to be gaining strength as the winter approaches.”
Macron warned that the second wave was “harder and more deadly than the first.” “No matter what we do, by mid-November we will have 9,000 patients in the intensive care unit, at our full capacity.”
Macron said if France did not go to Lockdown, doctors would have to choose between road accident victims, Kovid-19 patients and Kovid-19 patients. “This is unacceptable.”
In this order he listed his priorities: to protect the elderly and the most vulnerable; Protects young people because the disease can have long-term consequences for them; Protect medical officers who were still exhausted last spring; Protect the poor; Protecting the economy.
The French leader said there was no contradiction in protecting the health and economy of the people, because “there is no prosperous economy if the virus is actively spread” and “no health system can survive without a strong economy to provide financial support.”
It was important to find a balance, he said. “There is nothing more important to us than human life.”
He added that an additional 400,000 people would die if the “herd immunity” strategy was applied. “We will never allow millions of our citizens to die.”
Risky people cannot be isolated in a bubble. The epidemic rate is very high, with 40,000 to 50,000 contaminants per day, perhaps double that number, and the testing, detection, and isolation method is impractical.
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