French Prime Minister Jean Castex says local lockdowns cannot be ruled out given rising hospitalisations
Credit: LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP
Local lockdowns can no longer be ruled out in France, which has entered a "strong second wave" of the coronavirus epidemic, the country’s prime minister has warned.
Jean Castex’s stern words came as the Elysée Palace announced that President Emmanuel Macron will address the nation this evening on evening news.
The threat came as in the UK, Boris Johnson was due to unveil tough new regional lockdowns that are expected to see hundreds of pubs in the north-west of England closed for four weeks from 5pm on Wednesday.
Asked about the risks of new, more draconian orders to stay at home and close businesses over in France, the prime minister said: "Nothing can be ruled out, given what we’re seeing in our hospitals."
"If over the next two weeks we see the epidemic indicators worsen, if intensive care beds fill up even more than we expect, we will indeed take additional measures," Mr Castex told France Info radio on Monday.
Coronavirus France Spotlight Chart — Cases default
The government chief, who is struggling to make his mark in opinion polls 100 days after taking up the top ministerial post, said "it should be possible" to avoid a nationwide lockdown like the two-month one at the height of the Covid-19 outbreak in the spring.
But he said the ball was in the court of the French people, too many of whom were failing to appreciate that "a strong second wave is here," remarking that two more cities, Toulouse and Montpellier, had now been placed on "maximum alert" late on Sunday due to a spike in new cases — bringing the total to nine.
In particular he pointed to Paris and its suburbs, where agents carried out some 500 checks over the weekend to ensure bars were closed as ordered and restaurants were ensuring social distancing measures.
"In 95 cases, the agents had to hand out fines," Mr Castex said.
He blamed some local officials, notably in Marseille, of preferring to opt for "demagoguery" rather than enforcing rules necessary to slow the virus spread down. The state would always overrule local authorities if these fail to act in the public interest, he said.
France, as in some cities of the UK like Manchester, has seen rising local resistance to greater restrictions, with Marseille in particular protesting against the closure of cafes and bars and announcing its decision to create its own local scientific committee to counter the national one based in Paris and which issues recommendations for fresh clampdowns.
On Saturday, the national health agency reported a record of nearly 27,000 new daily virus cases on Saturday, and more than 16,000 on Sunday, with the overall death toll now standing at 32,730.
Mr Castex also announced that France is to "relaunch" its Covid app after the first one proved a flop. Only 2.6 million downloads have been carried out since June, far below the versions in Britain and Germany, which have 16 million and 18 million downloads respectively.
The prime minister was left red-faced a few weeks ago for admitting that he himself had failed to download it, citing his high-security phone as the main reason.
But the government is working on a new version to be released on October 22, "and this one I will download", he promised.
His interview came hours before President Macron was due to speak to the nation on national TV.
Mr Macron was expected to touch on the Covid crisis as well as a spectacular attack on a police station outside Paris on Saturday in which 40 assailants fired home-made mortar and fireworks at the building, which sustained damage along with several vehicles.
There were no injuries but the opposition accused the government of failing to get a grip the rising number of"anti-cop" crimes and law and order in general. The prime minister on Monday promised to be "unflinching" in dealing with such attacks.
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