France extends curfew to 46 million people, as new infections hit record highs
France is imposing a night curfew on about two-thirds of its population, as the country deals with record numbers of daily COVID-19 cases.
As of midnight Friday, 46 million people across the country will be under curfew orders, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced during a news conference Thursday. From Saturday onward, the curfew will take place between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. People who don’t comply might have to pay a fine of 135 euros ($160). Repeat offenders could face fines up to 3,750 euros ($4,445).
For any activities that need to be done during curfew hours — such as working, walking a dog, visiting a relative or going to a hospital — residents will be required to download a certificate.
“The second wave is here,” Castex said according to France24. And “the situation is grave.”
The new measures come just six days after similar curfews went into effect in greater Paris and eight other metropolitan areas. Castex has now extended the orders to 38 other administrative departments across the country, as well as some overseas territories.
“Clearly, the weeks to come will be difficult, our hospital services will be put to the test,” he said.
The measures should remain in place for at least six weeks, according to Castex, but he warned that the rules could change, pending future evaluations.
“If we fail to stop the pandemic, we will be facing a dire situation and we will have to envisage much tougher measures,” the prime minister said. “We still have time to avoid that but we don’t have much time,” he added.
“Every hour in [France] 1,000 people are declared to have #COVID19. Every minute there is a new hospitalization,” Olivier Véran, the country’s health minister, tweeted Thursday. “The steps we are taking aim to reverse the trend. Each of us has a piece of the solution,” he added.
According to the BBC, more than half of beds in intensive care units are currently occupied by COVID-19 patients.
Last week, as France passed 30,000 new infections for the first time, hundreds of health workers took to the streets in a number of French cities to protest against conditions in hospitals around the country.
“Hospitals and other public institutions have been crumbling under exponential activity since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, without the necessary human and physical resources,” according to a union representing workers in the healthcare and social protection industry.
On Friday, the country set yet a new record of infections: 41,622 new cases in 24 hours.
It also passed a grim milestone: more than 1 million cases of the deadly disease, including 34,353 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
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