Faced with the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, a new Health Defense Council is being held this Wednesday, March 31. Emmanuel Macron will then speak at 8 p.m. to take stock of the health situation.
What decisions could be announced by the President of the Republic? Thursday, March 25, at the end of the European Council, he affirmed that all “useful measures” would be taken “right in time”. “We have no taboos”, added Emmanuel Macron.
Covid-19: new departments in the government’s sights
New restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the virus had already been announced on March 18: a third confinement has thus started in 16 French departments, namely those of Ile-de-France and Hauts-de-France, but also the Alpes-Maritimes, Eure and Seine-Maritime.
Other departments are also in the government’s sights. On March 25, Olivier Véran announced during a press briefing that these restrictions applied in three new departments, namely Rhône, Nièvre and Aube. 24 departments were placed in enhanced vigilance, because they exceeded the maximum alert threshold set at 250 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
# COVID19 | 24 departments remain under enhanced surveillance ⤵ pic.twitter.com/D3yqxSITEv
– Ministry of Solidarity and Health (@Sante_Gouv) March 25, 2021
Since then, other departments in the south-east have exceeded the threshold of 400 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the platform Covid Tracker. These are the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, the Hautes-Alpes, the Bouches-du-Rhône, the Var and the Vaucluse. New restrictions could therefore be applied.
Towards a school closure?
Schools could also be the subject of new measures. Since March 29, the school health protocol has been tightened in the 19 confined departments. From now on, a class must be closed upon the discovery of a single case of Covid-19, against three so far. As of Friday March 26, theNational Education there were 148 schools and 3,256 classes closed in France.
Could this measure be generalized? March 31, “Emmanuel Macron could announce the closure of schools, causing the massive shift of the French into teleworking”, told the Parisian an adviser to the executive.
The President of the Republic, however, explained to the JDD that this measure should remain on “last resort”.
Covid-19: a strict containment envisaged?
Among the new measures envisaged, we also find that of strict re-containment. “If things get worse and become more homogenous across the country, we must not rule out the idea of a spring 2020 type containment”, explains an anonymous source to Parisian.
A potential containment necessary according to the Public Assistance – Hospitals of Paris. On March 27, during a crisis meeting, the AP-HP shared its projections, which were relayed by France Inter : if strict confinement is not put in place on April 1, the number of daily hospitalizations in Île-de-France could rise to 230 against 120 today.
This observation is shared by the president of the AP-HP establishment medical commission Rémi Salomon: “We are not going to have any other choice than that of confinement”, he said on BFMTV March 28.
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