By News writing
Published on 9 Jan 21 at 13:52
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Faced with the threat of more contagious variants of Covid-19, the government wants to advance the curfew in a dozen new departments. After the Bas-Rhin, the curfew will be in force at 6 p.m. from Sunday in the Cher, Allier, Côte-d’Or and Haut-Rhin, announced on Saturday January 9, 2021 the prefectures concerned.
These departments join the fifteen, mainly from eastern France, which have already been subject to this measure for a week while the rest of the territory has a curfew at 8 p.m.
Question mark in three departments
Other departments are expected to switch to an advanced curfew. Among them, the Bouches-du-Rhône, where local elected officials are standing up against this measure, the Vaucluse, the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. All exceed or approach an incidence rate of 200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Haute-Savoie has it, maintained at 8:00 p.m.
–A Marseille, ignoring political divisions, the town hall, on the left, and the region, on the right, denounced with one voice the measure, which, according to them, has not proved its effectiveness. Friday, “there was a consultation meeting with local elected officials and the prefect is still in the consultation phase. He gave feedback to the Prime Minister ”, told the AFP Prefecture.
“The decision was inevitable in Dijon, the third city most affected in France by the Covid-19, after Nice and Nancy. But I regret that this reinforced curfew applies to the entire Côte d’Or department because rural areas are much less affected by the virus, ”said the president of the departmental council, François Sauvadet, on Twitter.
An effective curfew?
For the government, the establishment of a curfew, applied for the first time at the end of October, made it possible to slow down contamination. However, it did not prevent a second confinement, underline its detractors.
The head of the infectious diseases department at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, Eric Caumes, does not hide his skepticism: ” I’m not sure it’s very effective but we’ll see. Personally, I don’t believe it, but we’ll see, ”he declared on Saturday morning on franceinfo.
–A worrying British variant
In the meantime, a massive screening operation was underway on Saturday in Bagneux, in the Paris suburbs, where a person has tested positive for the British variant. Concerning fact: According to the Department of Health, the person tested working at two schools had not traveled to the UK or been in contact with anyone who had been there.
For the moment, 19 cases of contamination by this variant are found throughout France (as well as three others by a different variant initially spotted in South Africa), according to the Ministry of Health.
“This variant is already there. In my hospital I have two patients who have the British variant. Do you know where they come from? from Lebanon and the other from the Arabian Peninsula. We will not escape it, ”said Professor Caumes, calling for the strengthening of barrier gestures.
Source: © 2021 AFP
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