PARIS (Reuters) – Paris will have to be on maximum alert for COVID-19, which means that bars will be forced to close for two weeks from Tuesday and restaurants will have to put in place new fitness protocols to remain open, the prime minister’s workplace said. .
Prime Minister Jean Castex said there have been no improvements in the Paris region since the capital met the government’s 3 criteria to be on high alert in the middle of last week.
Working from home will be a “now more than ever” priority in the Paris region and university amphitheaters will only be partially filled, Castex’s workplace said in a statement.
The most difficult restrictions will take effect from Tuesday.
“These measures, essential in combat to stop the spread of the virus, will apply to Paris and the 3 departments around it, over a two-week era,” he said.
For a city to be on high alert, the rate of occurrence will have to exceed one hundred infections, which equates to one hundred thousand among the elderly and 250, which corresponds to one hundred thousand among the general public, while at least 30% of the resuscitation beds are reserved for patients with coronavirus.
A week ago, restaurants and bars closed for a fortnight in Marseille, a southern town at the epicentre of the wave at the time, sparking protests and a failed legal challenge.
Restaurants in Marseille will reopen early under the same new protocols.
France reported 12,565 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, while 893 patients with COVID-19 had been admitted to intensive care the following week.
(Reporting through Elizabeth Pineau; written through Richard Lough; edited through Daniel Wallis)