Macron: announces the restrictions imposed since this weekend

The President of the Republic takes stock of the health situation in the country and announces new measures.

The essential

• The rules in force in 19 departments will be extended to the entire metropolitan territory « from Saturday evening ».
• Nurseries, schools, colleges and high schools will be closed for three weeks and the school calendar adapted. The re-entry will take place on April 26 for all zones. Middle school and high school students will be able to resume face-to-face lessons from May 3.
• « All the volunteers of the health reserve will be mobilized » in the coming days to increase our resuscitation capacity to 10,000 beds.
• Controls and sanctions will be reinforced on public roads to limit gatherings.
• The certificate will be compulsory during the day only for trips beyond 10 km from home.
• Vaccination extended to everyone over 60 on April 16 and to everyone over 50 on May 15.
• Some places of culture and terraces may reopen from mid-May.

« We will still hold on (…) if we remain united, united, if we know how to organize ourselves in the coming weeks, we will see the end of the tunnel », assured the Head of State at the beginning of his speech before d ‘call on the French to mobilize. « Believing in the responsibility of the French is never a gamble, » maintained the President of the Republic defending the measures taken in recent months.

An address which is part of a clearly unfavorable national health context, which requires « everyone’s mobilization » in the words of the President of the Republic, with summer as the horizon. Follow the development of the situation with us.

The President of the Republic announced an extension of the measures currently in force in Ile-de-France to the entire territory, as well as the establishment of a specific system for the school for the coming weeks. Partial activity has also been granted again to parents who cannot telecommute. Follow the evolution of the situation live.

The extension to the entire territory of the measures already in force for ten days in 19 departments was announced by Emmanuel Macron. According to a ministerial source who spoke to Europe 1, the restrictions currently in force have certainly demonstrated their effect, but insufficient to reverse the curve of the incidence rate. Travel between regions is tolerated until Monday to allow those who wish to confine themselves to another place in the territory.

In this globally gloomy picture, students will experience a week of home schooling before the Easter holidays. Leave, the duration of which will be exceptionally extended to three weeks for the entire territory. Concretely, the children will not see the benches of the school for a month, with first a week in distance, the next week, then three weeks of zoned vacation before a return on April 26. For universities, students will be able to attend face-to-face classes once a week.

During this period, the State will once again release partial activity for parents who are unable to telework, and who therefore have to take care of their children. The objective is threefold: to reduce contamination in establishments, limit the mixing of parents in front of schools and force companies to grant teleworking.

The list of authorized businesses remains unchanged

Economically, the list of businesses authorized so far in the 19 departments subject to confinement has not changed. Booksellers, florists and chocolate makers should therefore remain open in the coming weeks. The support mechanisms will be « extended », announced the Head of State.

And « French women and men living abroad who want to return to France will also be able to do so at any time and we will do everything to facilitate the daily lives of our fellow cross-border workers, » said Emmanuel Macron.

Concretely, « the curfew at 7 p.m. will be maintained everywhere and teleworking will be systematized and I call on all employers and teleworkers to use it whenever they can, » added Emmanuel Macron. Part of the shops will be closed.

• Emmanuel Macron fixes « in mid-May » a reopening of the country. « I know there is a lot of weariness and fatigue, » admits the president. « We will stand, united and determined, » he concluded.
• Emmanuel Macron « deeply sorry » by the fact that French people over 75 years old cannot get vaccinated. « From April 16, the first appointments will be assigned to people between 60 and 75 years old, » he announces. The president reformulates his promise that all adults who wish will be able to be vaccinated by the end of the summer.
• « Thanks to vaccination, the way out of the crisis is finally taking shape (…) The vaccine is effective », explains Emmanuel Macron who promises « to accelerate again and again ». « We will gradually become the first continent in the world in terms of vaccine production », announces the president
• « The economic and social support will be there ». Partial unemployment will be possible for parents who cannot telecommute.
• « We can congratulate ourselves on having reopened our schools and having kept them open. We are one of the few countries that have made this choice (…) Yes, the virus is circulating in schools but no more than elsewhere. . School is not negotiable « .

Resuscitations at their highest since the second wave

With 5,072 patients in intensive care on Tuesday, the number of patients in these services is still increasing, after having reached the highest point of the autumn wave the day before. And the rest does not look better because, in mid-November, the circulation of the virus and the number of contaminations were already clearly declining, which is not the case at present.

Including Covid patients and others, nearly 9 out of 10 intensive care beds (6,833 out of 7,665 as of March 26) are currently occupied, according to the Ministry of Health, which specifies that « the increase in capacity is continues in all regions « . On Tuesday, 337 new deaths were recorded in hospitals, bringing the total death toll to 95,364 deaths, proof that the effects of vaccination (« more than 8.5 million » of first doses injected, « more than 3 million » of second doses , said Emmanuel Macron) are still very limited.

Johnson & Johnson vaccine soon in France, good news for Pfizer / BioNTech

France will receive around eight million doses of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine in total by the end of June, the health ministry said, with around 500,000 doses in April. By comparison, some 47 million doses of the other three authorized vaccines will be delivered to France in April, May and June.

The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 is 100% effective in adolescents aged 12 to 15, according to the results of a clinical trial, the two laboratories announced Wednesday, which hope that the vaccination of this slice of age will start before the next school year. Pfizer and BioNTech will now submit this data to various regulatory authorities around the world « in the hope of starting to vaccinate this age group before the start of the next school year. »

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Gabriel MIHAI

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