The French government has announced a new COVID-19 alert formula that will force the town of Marseille to impose new strict restrictions, adding the closure of all bars and restaurants.
France’s largest city at the time has had one of the highest rates of coronavirus cases in the country in the past two months. The local medical government sounded the alarm and pleaded with citizens to take more precautions, but hospitals in the city reported that the beds they had set aside for COVID. Cases had become overcrowded in recent weeks.
The local government had already made the mask mandatory and imposed a curfew in the bars, prompting some growls among the inhabitants. While Marseille politicians expressed surprise and anger at the new measures, the French government has been forced to take more competitive action, with the country risking wasting war in the face of the pandemic that gave the impression of having conquered in early summer.
“Let’s be clear, the stage continues to deteriorate,” Health Minister Olivier Véran said Wednesday at a press conference, the local reported. Regions. . . and enormous tension in hospitals in many regions.
The number of new cases far exceeded the peaks noticed in the spring when the country instituted a two-month blockade. While deaths have only increased slightly, government officials have followed a harder tone as they sought to get the French back to take the risk seriously. .
With words that have a lot of impact, Veran announced on Wednesday a new alert formula that includes five colors: green (low risk), pink (alert), red (enhanced alert), dark red (maximum alert), and gray (emergency state).
Dark or dark areas face new restrictions.
For the 11 locations in the red category, the bars will face curfew at 10 pm, public meetings must be 10 other people or less, visits to nursing homes will be limited and gyms must close. several of the largest cities in France, in addition to Toulouse, Paris, Lyon, Lille and Nice.
Only 2 zones fall into the dark red category: Guadeloupe and Marseille. These unfortunate spaces will have to close bars and restaurants.
Local officials have until this weekend to develop plans to enact the nearest ones and inform citizens of the new regulations that will take effect on Monday. Among the classes to be clarified: two-week closures can simply be prolonged depending on the rate of COVID cases.
Beyond bars and restaurants, all other public spaces must adopt drastic sanitary regulations or face closure.
The new crackdown is a coup Marsella. La mayor Michale Rubirola tweeted an angry tweet Wednesday night saying that the city corridor had not been consulted before. Rubirola is a member of the French Green Party, which won the election in July to the first in the city. female mayor.
French environmentalists have been highly critical of President Emmanuel Macron’s government, but the new measures confront the Greens who oppose Macron’s centre-right government, La République En Marche, on economic and fitness issues.
“I learned with amazement and anger of a resolution for which the mayor of Marseille was not consulted,” Rubirola writes. “Nothing on the fitness stage justifies this announcement. I am only satisfied that the rest of the people of Marseille suffer political resolutions that one cannot understand.
This led to a frank exchange with Veran, who defended the motion as obligatory for the city. He also noted that he had spoken to a deputy mayor before pronouncing the decision. Rubirola replied that the call arrived just 10 minutes before the press conference. .
Another lieutenant mayor, Samia Ghali, said he shared the mayor’s anger and that the people “trembled with each and every government announcement. We don’t want to be punished, we want resources for hospitals. “
However, the blows against Marseille are not entirely surprising, the city had experienced a strong tourist season this summer, which saw more remains of hotels than last year thanks to waves of French tourists, but as cases accumulated in the summer, citizens also ignored repeated warnings that the city would face more difficult measures if it did not prevent construction in some cases.
That included wild celebrations earlier this month after the Olympique de Marseille team beat Paris Saint Germain. Fans took to the streets, prompting a quick rebuke from French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
“We can condemn the photographs we see,” Darmanin told LCI television, according to Reuters.
I am an American journalist in Toulouse, France, and I write about technology, travel, culture, politics, and entertainment. Before moving to France in 2014, I spent 15
I am an American journalist founded in Toulouse, France, and I write about technology, Array culture, politics and entertainment. Before moving to France in 2014, I spent 15 years covering Silicon Valley for the Los Angeles Times and The San Jose Mercury News. I also run the French website Carrefour.