Omicron: the cities where the mask becomes obligatory on the street

With more than 200,000 cases per day, the Omicron variant is sweeping over Europe and in particular France. However, the government has not decided to implement a curfew for New Year’s Eve, but has extended the wearing of masks to all city centers. The prefects are then in a position to take additional decisions. And that’s what several of them did. The Paris Police Prefecture, for its part, indicated that wearing a mask would be compulsory throughout the city from this Friday, December 31 (except specific cases such as two-wheelers, cyclists or those practicing a sporting activity). Controls will also be reinforced and any offender may be fined 135 euros.

A measure extended to several departments of Ile-de-France, whether Hauts-de-Seine, Val-d’Oise, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne, recalls the JDD. The city centers of Yvelines are also concerned, as are the agglomerations of Essonne. For several weeks now, some prefects had not waited for the situation to deteriorate to restore the wearing of masks outdoors in certain places. LCI listed them: Finistère, Côtes d’Armor, Morbihan, Ille-et-Vilaine, Loire-Atlantique, Maine-et-Loire, Deux-Sèvres, Orne, Eure, l ‘Eure-et-Loir, Val-d’Oise, Yvelines, Loir-et-Cher, Cher, North, Aisne, Ardennes, Meuse, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Bas- Rhine, Haut-Rhin, Territoire de Belfort, Loire, Rhône, Isère, Haute-Savoie, Landes, Tarn, Hérault, Bouches-du-Rhône, Var, Alpes- Maritimes, Pyrénées-Orientales and Ariège.

>> Read also – Covid: wearing a mask outdoors compulsory in Lyon and Villeurbanne

In some ski resorts too

Cities like Bayonne, Bordeaux, Biarritz Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Anglet, Pau, Brest, Quimper or Rennes had taken similar measures whether around schools, markets or in queues. Wearing a mask has also been made compulsory in two towns in the Rhône since Thursday evening, December 30, namely Lyon and Villeurbanne for three weeks except between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. Likewise, from this Friday, December 31, the mask is compulsory for one month in the cities of Périgueux, Sarlat and Bergerac (Dordogne).

Always according to the JDD, Drôme has extended the measure to all its towns of more than 4,000 inhabitants, and Charente-Maritime imposes it on 72 municipalities. In the Var, 153 municipalities have been affected since December 11. While in Toulouse a decree could be published for the New Year’s Eve, wearing a mask outdoors is mandatory in Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte and Reunion. The prefect of Savoy also published a decree on December 24 making it compulsory from 9 a.m. to midnight in the municipalities of Chambéry, Albertville and Aix-les-Bains, recalls LCI, as in some ski resorts (Courchevel, les Ménuires, La Plagne). Finally the measure comes into force this Friday, December 31 in Saint-Malo.

>> To read also – Why France does not recommend the wearing of the FFP2 mask yet