Restrictions in 23 departments, reconfinement for the weekend in Pas-de-Calais

During his press conference, Prime Minister Jean Castex unsurprisingly announced the reconfinement of the Pas-de-Calais weekend. Shopping centers of more than 10,000 m² will be closed from Friday evening in all departments under enhanced surveillance.

Faced with an upsurge in the epidemic “for a fortnight”, Prime Minister Jean Castex held a new press conference on Thursday. Unsurprisingly, he confirmed the reconfinement for the weekend in Pas-de-Calais, but not in the other departments placed under reinforced surveillance by the executive. The head of government also announced the closure of shops over 5,000 m² in Pas-de-Calais, and 10,000 m² in all departments at risk. Areas that are now 23 in number, after the addition of Hautes-Alpes, Aisne and Aube.

The curfew has been in effect throughout France since mid-January and cultural venues, bars and restaurants have been closed for four months.

The head of government also announced an acceleration of vaccination. People over 50 with comorbid conditions can be vaccinated at a pharmacist starting the week of March 15. In addition, 135,000 new doses will be allocated “by this evening” in priority departments under enhanced surveillance. “Of this total, 10,000 doses will be sent to Pas-de-Calais.”

By the summer, the Prime Minister estimates that France will have received enough doses to “offer vaccination to 30 million people, or two thirds of the population over 18”.

Regarding the balance sheet, France counts 87,835 dead on Thursday evening

France has 87,835 Thursday evening, or 293 more over the last 24 hours, according to figures published by the government site. If the epidemic continues to progress, as Jean Castex indicated during his press conference, it does not explode, and hospitalizations and resuscitations are down over 24 hours. There are thus 24,891 hospitalizations, or 220 less, and 3,633 serious cases in intensive care, or 4 less. In addition, 25,279 new cases were detected over the same period. The epidemiological pressure therefore remains strong on the country, in part because of the British variant of Covid-19 which now represents “more than 60% of contaminations”, according to the figure given by the Prime Minister.

Jean Castex thus announced during his press conference that France would receive “22 million doses between March and April”. “That is three times more” than the 7 million doses received between January and February. “By mid-April, we should have vaccinated in the first injection at least 10 million people, or all of the vulnerable volunteers now eligible for vaccination,” said the Prime Minister.

An acceleration that particularly concerns the 23 departments under surveillance, since 135,000 doses will be allocated to them from Thursday evening. In detail, 10,000 will be for Pas-de-Calais, 12,000 for the city of Nice, 11,000 for Paris and 44,000 for Île-de-France.

“We should have vaccinated at least 20 million people” by mid-May, that is to say all over 50 volunteers, also promised Thursday the Prime Minister Jean Castex. And to add: “by the summer, we will have received enough doses to have offered vaccination to 30 million people, or two thirds of the population over 18 years.”

Rise in the number of cases in Europe, according to the WHO

The number of new cases of Covid-19 is increasing again in Europe, after six weeks of decline, the regional management of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday. “Last week, new cases of Covid-19 in Europe rose 9% to just over a million. That ends a promising six-week drop in new cases, with more than half of our region with a growing number of new infections, “WHO European director Hans Kluge told a press conference.

More than 2.5 million dead

The pandemic has killed at least 2.56 million people worldwide, according to a report established by AFP from official sources Wednesday in the middle of the day. The United States is the country with the most deaths with 519,064 deaths, followed by Brazil (259,271) with a new 24-hour record announced Wednesday (1,910 dead), Mexico (188,044), India (157,435) and the United Kingdom (123,783).

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Gabriel MIHAI

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