Germany, after France and Spain, also runs for cover and tightens its belt in the face of the advance of coronavirus cases. Given the “sometimes very steep” growth curve in some areas of Germany, “contact restrictions will be introduced in areas where new infections exceed 50 new infections per 1000 inhabitants both in public and in private”: Chancellor Angela Merkel announced . “We know that the data reflects the events of the previous ten days and therefore if we introduce measures we have to wait ten days to see if the dynamics of the epidemic has stopped or decreased and only then will we see if other measures are necessary,” he added.
FRANCE – “The situation is worrying, but we have not lost control, do not panic”. Faced with the advance of the second wave of coronavirus in France, Emmanuel Macron on live TV announces a night curfew between 9pm and 6am in Paris and in other cities where the rate of contagion rises day by day, for at least 4 weeks which will almost certainly become 6. The president is serious and worried but also determined not to overload the French with anxiety, stressing that “a lockdown would have been disproportionate “.
Lille, Grenoble, Lyon, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, Montpellier, Rouen, Toulouse and Saint-Etienne, the cities on “maximum health alert”, will follow the fate of Paris, announced Macron, who was careful to emphasize the need for “common sense” which must guide citizens in this phase which “will last at least until summer 2021”.
“From 20,000 infections we must go down to 3-5,000” per day, he said, while not hiding the weight and severity of the increase in Covid patients in intensive care. And flaunting confidence, he concluded his speech – after the greetings of the two journalists who were interviewing him – taking up the floor again to reassure: “We will do it”. But Macron had just returned from the most difficult day, with the government split between the “pure and hard” of health needs – Health Minister Olivier Véran in the lead – and at least 4 ministers who were strenuously opposed to the curfew in the name of safeguarding the economy cities, merchants and equality between those who can still get by by going to second homes in the countryside for 6 weeks, thanks to teleworking, and those who will be forced to stay in the city without going out at night for a month and a half. “There will be no restrictions on transport”, the president specified, because “there will be people who will continue to work at night, or in the evening, or early in the morning”.
And then: “We have not decided to reduce travel between regions”, a green light for those who have already organized the departure from Friday for the 15 days of All Saints’ school holidays. “Asking people to stay closed in an apartment and not go to a vacation spot – he stressed – would be disproportionate”.
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