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People are furious after the government ordered the closure of restaurants and bars in Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, the two cities of metropolitan France that face such measures.
By Aurelien Breeden
PARIS – Long-standing antagonism between Paris, the dominant French capital, and Marseille, its sunniest and most turbulent rival on the Mediterranean coast, has uncovered a new battlefield: the coronavirus.
Politicians and businesses in Marseille and its neighbor, Aix-en-Provence, have been furious since the government ordered the closure of all bars, cafes and restaurants in those two cities, and nowhere else in metropolitan France, for 15 days from Sunday night. to counteract the accumulation of Covid-19-related hospitalizations in the region.
“It’s a disaster, we all expect permanent closures,” said Laurent Ceccarini, owner of two restaurants, either steps from Marseille’s Old Port.
Ceccarini said he felt an unpleasant sense of déja vu as he threw away perishable food and was preparing to put his 40 or more paid leave workers back on, as in March, when France carried out a full blockade across the country.
In the centre of Marseille, a city of more than 800,000 inhabitants, French television on Monday showed that cafes were closed and others briefly breached the restrictions, until police quietly patrolled but asked consumers who drink coffee to leave the sunny terraces.
The national government and some local fitness officials say closures are a painful brake, but at the same time to prevent hospitals in any of the cities from being overwhelmed.
In Marseille’s main hospitals, there are currently 177 patients with Covid-19, up from 66 a month ago, and 50 of them occupy more than all the beds in the extensive care units, according to the public hospital system.
French Health Minister Olivier Véran said last week that the measures were “temporary” but “arbitrary. “
“If there is a threat of waiting to see if the scenario is moving forward on its own, there will also be a threat of even more powerful measures in the coming days or weeks,” he said. where the complaint is maximum, you have to check to soothe the frustration.
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