Corsica has been declared a “risk zone” by Germany due to the upsurge in Covid cases. A national increase which will force France to “make difficult decisions within eight to ten days”, according to the Scientific Council.
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It is now official: German tourists returning from Corsica will have to undergo a screening test and remain in quarantine pending the result.
Corsica is one of the three new French regions declared “risk areas” by Berlin.
The island is added to other regions already subject to this classification: Ile-de-France, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA), Occitanie, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
This decision is the consequence of the upsurge in Covid-19 cases, the benchmark health agency Robert Koch Institut announced on Wednesday. An upsurge taken very seriously in France too.
Hard decisions to make within eight to ten days
On Wednesday, the president of the scientific council who was speaking in front of the Senate, indicated that the French government would “be obliged to take a number of difficult decisions within eight to ten days maximum”, describing the level as “worrying” of the Covid-19 epidemic in the country.
8,000 new cases in France in 24 hours
More than 8,000 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in France on Wednesday. A figure higher than that of the last two days, although it should be noted that the number of patients entered in intensive care is down, according to data from the Directorate General of Health (DGS).
The scientific council and I are convinced that we must not go back to confinement
This Thursday on RTL, Professor Jean-François Delfraissy said: “The scientific council and I are convinced that we should not go back to confinement. The issues are not only health, they are also societal and economic. So the choice is not will not only be health. But we also see that for several weeks the virus has started to circulate in a worrying way. The figures show that the care system, in particular the number of sheave beds, will be jostled from mid-October or early October in some regions “.
But still according to the president of the scientific council, time is running out. “All measures taken by the politician take three weeks to have an impact; a decision taken now will have beneficial effects in early October. So the longer we wait, the more there will be a runaway of the virus.”
Visits prohibited in hospitals in Corsica
This increase in cases is also observed in Corsica, as evidenced by the figures of the ARS: 110 positive cases in the last 48 hours, bringing the total number of people tested and infected to 928 since July 1.
This increase has earned Corsica a red zone since last weekend. A ranking that has consequences for the daily life of islanders: in addition to the closure of the bars at midnight, in force since Monday, visits are now prohibited in the hospitals of Ajaccio and Bastia.
“Certain visits remain authorized, such as in maternity, but it is only on a case by case basis, specifies the director of the hospital of Bastia Jean-Michel Defour, because we have to support the fragile people”.
Strong rise in Paca
On the continent, this particularly worrying upsurge in the PACA region, with 539 people hospitalized (+ 143 in the last 24 hours).
????#Covid19 Situation report from 08/09 in #Paca
Since the start of the epidemic
▶ 42,936 positive people (+7,650)
▶ 1,013 people died
▶ 6,724 home returns
Currently
▶ 539 people hospitalized (+143)
▶ 86 people in intensive care (+37)https://t.co/l11spKw30Z pic.twitter.com/pvGqvwSav5– ARS Paca (@ARSPaca) September 8, 2020
Maintaining partial unemployment
The government refuses in any case very clearly to consider the hypothesis of a reconfinementt of the country.
Thus, employees in the private sector forced to keep their children due to the closure of their nursery, school or college and who will be unable to telework will still be able to benefit from partial unemployment, which Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne confirmed Thursday in Bonifacio (Corse-du-Sud).
“Partial unemployment, we will continue until next summer. We will not let go!”, Assured the Secretary of State for Tourism to an assembly of tourism professionals.
It must be said that the sector does not hide its major concerns about the future of the island economy. Concerns strongly underlined by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry which estimates that more than 3,000 island companies are on the verge of filing for bankruptcy and that 6,000 jobs are threatened on the island following the health crisis of Covid-19. The Corsican CCI has estimated its recovery plan at 2.5 billion euros.
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