What the President of France, Macron, announced in a televised speech. Enrico Martial’s point
From Saturday 3 April and for four weeks, France extends the “soft” lockdown to the whole national territory, in the form already implemented in 19 departments. Special measures are taken for the school, to preserve teaching and some openness. France has had schools in operation since 11 May 2020 and since September it has never substantially closed, except for universities (with one day a week in attendance) and some high schools in a more critical area at 50% distance.
All non-essential shops are closed (bookstores and record shops are open), teleworking will always be done and barring real impossibility and personal movement will be possible within ten kilometers without self-certification. After 3 April it will be forbidden to move between the departments, but before and for Easter it will be possible to reach the secondary residences, allowing, for those who can, to leave the urban areas for the lockdown period. The schools will be in distance learning the first week, from 5 to 9 April and then there will be a two-week spring break, already planned and standardized for the whole country, that is from Friday 9 to 25 April. From April 26, elementary and middle schools will return to class, while high schools will begin at a distance and then from May 3 in presence:
The measures were announced and explained by President Emmanuel Macron in a televised speech at 8pm on March 31st. He indicated that the vaccination strategy is now oriented both to preserve lives, but also to slow down the spread of the virus – the French who have had the first dose exceed 8 million. We will now intervene on some categories exposed to diffusion, such as teachers, as well as for age groups: those over 65 will begin to be vaccinated from 15 April, those over 50 from 15 May. The vaccination centers for Pfizer and Moderna (which require cooling systems) are currently 1700, while for Astrazeneca family doctors, pharmacists, firefighters, and veterinarians can vaccinate from Monday 5 April. Among the signs of hope, the hypothesis of reopening the centers of culture,
The measures are in continuity with the strategy put in place so far, played on the containment of the diffusion and in the expectations placed on the slowdown effects that will be obtained from vaccinations. President Macron defended the previous choices and was actually right not to lock up the French at the end of January. He resisted the indications of the scientific committee and various technical circles: they wanted a closure as in the first phase of the “stay at home” in the face of an irresistible rise in infections in mid-February, which did not happen. This allowed Macron to confirm two priorities, namely maximum school openings – with cases limited to 50% in attendance – and a fair amount of work, facilitated by the lower load for families, even when they were teleworking.
Macron’s “aperturista” choice at the end of January was however accompanied by various and new specific measures, such as the closures of shopping centers, reinforced protocols, general curfew at 6pm, adaptations to areas, and in any case without evening conviviality, control of new outbreaks with tracking and punctual measures adopted by mayors or prefects. This has been the case with the closures of meeting places, such as the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, the Quais in Paris and Lyon.
However, the variants of the virus have changed the picture, starting with the English one, which from the port of Dunkirk has spread to the North region, the Paris region and the roads to Nice. Since March 20, the measures now in place throughout France have been introduced in 16 departments which were then extended on March 27 in Lyon and in two departments on the axis between Lyon and Paris, namely Aube and Nievre. In recent days, however, the spread of the virus and the pressure on hospitals have cast doubt on the entire strategy of the president, his prime minister Jean Castex and the minister of health, Olivier Veran.
The soft lockdown in the 16 departments has allowed a slowdown in the spread of the virus, but the situation is serious: the occupied resuscitation beds have exceeded the peak of mid-November, when they were at around 4900, to reach 5076 on March 30. Surgery has been suspended in many Parisian hospitals. President Macron has announced new places in intensive care, to go from the 7756 currently available to 10 thousand beds, also by recalling emergency personnel, that is, trainees and retired doctors.
The climate of intolerance in the country is in any case high: on 21 March in Marseille, 6 thousand people gathered in the square for the Carnival. The president of the Southern Region, Bernard Muselier, on 27 March published a tweet on the new spread of the infection by city areas starting from the black water data, collected and analyzed by the Navy fire service in Marseille. On Tuesday, March 30, the police had to evacuate the quais of Lyon, with boys and girls dancing, and some public parks.
