Invited on France Inter this Thursday, January 28, 2021, government spokesman Gabriel Attal explained what "very tight confinement" meant to fight against the coronavirus and its variants.
Pending the press conference, Thursday January 28, 2021 at 2 p.m., Minister of Health Olivier Véran, Gabriel Attal gave some explanations concerning his announcement of "very tight confinement", made the day before. At the microphone of France Inter, the Secretary of State to the Prime Minister and government spokesperson declared that this confinement will have "rapid and effective effects to slow down the circulation of the virus. We are drawing lessons (from past confinements). It is not decisions that are taken by the pifometer. Our goal is the fairest balance between the limitation of the virus and the lives of the French. I fully understand that it is anxious, and that the French want to know ".
On the question of closing schools as in the first confinement, Gabriel Attal wished to recall that "From the start, we made the choice to keep schools open as much as possible. We always have as a compass to allow our children to go to school as much as possible. There are countries in Europe where in one year the children went to school for three weeks. Now we are in a special situation, nothing is excluded. " And added: "It is possible to think about lengthening the holidays one way or the other. Our goal remains that the children can continue to learn."
Containment as in March-April 2020
The curfew has, according to Gabriel Attal, "a relative efficiency, which is real, but which is not sufficient at this stage". Not to mention the "variants which develop at a significant rate". In France, hospitalizations continued to increase on Wednesday January 27, reaching the number of 27,000. "very tight confinement" evoked would therefore be a return to what we experienced in March-April 2020: closure of non-essential businesses such as places to live, inability to leave home, except to go shopping or to walk your dog, return of exit certificates, etc.
According to an Elabe poll conducted for BFMTV published on January 27, 2021, "93% of French people say they would not respect a new confinement, whether it is on the model of the first or the second." For the time being, the measures are not completely clear-cut, but Emmanuel Macron is expected to speak on Sunday, January 31 in the evening or early next week.