Covid-19: Bars should close in Paris

New turn of the screw in the capital: faced with the progression of the Covid-19 epidemic, the government should announce on Sunday the closure of bars in Paris next week. Restaurants still hope to escape it thanks to a reinforced health protocol.

The latest data from the Regional Health Agency (ARS) released on Friday leaves little hope. Thursday, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran had granted a “reprieve” to Parisian cafetiers, saying he wanted to wait for the final increases in figures before placing Paris and its inner suburbs on “maximum alert”, where Aix-Marseille is already located and the Guadeloupe.

However, since then, the indicators have not improved. The incidence rate (new cases of Covid-19 over seven days) still exceeded the mark of 250 per 100,000 inhabitants in Paris on Friday – one of the three criteria for switching to the maximum alert zone – standing at 264 against 261 Thursday. The occupancy rate of intensive care beds for patients with Covid-19 was 34.8% in Ile de France, above the maximum alert threshold of 30%.

⋙ To read also – In the North, bars and restaurants will also have to close earlier

Worrisome incidence rate among the oldest

As for the third criterion, that of the incidence rate among those over 65, it also exceeded the critical threshold of 100. The deterioration of the health situation is also reflected in this note sent on Friday by the Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) to its human resources managers considering the cancellation of the leave of its staff during the All Saints holidays, due to the Covid-19.

Therefore, within the executive, there is little mystery about his intention to completely close the bars, already forced for a week to lower the curtain at 10 pm in the capital.

If the worsening observed for a few hours were to be confirmed over the next few days, “we would have no other choice but to place Paris and the inner suburbs on maximum alert from Monday,” Olivier Véran said Thursday. It will then be necessary to “reduce social interactions”, that is to say: “more family celebrations, more parties and the total closure of bars”, added the Minister of Health.

Restaurants are still hoping to escape this fate after proposing reinforced health control – taking the temperature of customers at the entrance, collecting their contact details and limiting groups of diners to eight – on which the High Council of Public Health must be. pronounce by Monday.

Paris like Marseille

The government has suggested that it will follow the advice of the court. If it validates the protocol, restaurants can therefore remain “all or part” open, even in “maximum alert” areas, and therefore reopen in Aix-Marseille. “There is no question of making differences in treatment because Paris and Marseille are placed from Monday in the same zone” of alert, advance a government source.

Regarding the bars, the Parisian elected officials indicated that they would comply with any closure decision, which seems to exclude a sling wind like the one that had blown in Marseille last week. The mayors of the district are summoned Monday at 3 p.m. by Anne Hidalgo for an emergency meeting on the measures, according to one of them.

According to an Elabe poll for BFMTV on Sunday, 61% of Ile-de-France residents would be in favor of the complete closure of bars in Paris and in the inner suburbs. If Paris is on the front line, other large cities, such as Lille, Lyon, Grenoble, Toulouse and Saint-Etienne could also soon switch to the red alert zone and be concerned by the closures of bars, while nearly 17,000 positive cases have been detected in 24 hours in France, a record, according to figures from Saturday.

⋙ To read also – Bars and restaurants closed in Marseille: the appeal of the food bank to avoid waste

For the sector, already very weakened by the health crisis, it is yet another hard blow. According to the main employers’ organization, Umih, around 15% of the 220,000 companies in the sector – cafes, bars, hotels, restaurants, brasseries, nightclubs – could go out of business in the coming months in France, and 220 to 250,000 employees could find themselves unemployed.

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