Arts stars pledge to get coronavirus jab to convince vaccine-sceptical French 

Actress Julie Gayet is among those who pledged to get the jab 

Credit: Venturelli /Getty Images 

Some 200 celebrities from the French arts have signed a letter calling on the sceptical French to get vaccinated as the country braces for more restrictions on Thursday.

Actress Julie Gayet — partner of French ex-president François Hollande — and Daniel Auteuil — famed for his role in Jean de Florettes — were among the signatories, along with film and theatre directors and historians.

“To take a decisive step in mastering this pandemic, we, without hesitation, commit ourselves to get vaccinated as soon as possible,” reads the text, which was published in Le Parisien newspaper.

The latest polls suggest that less than 40 per cent of French people intend to get vaccinated — among the lowest levels in the world — compared to almost 80 per cent in the UK.

The initiator of the petition, Stanislas Nordey, director of Strasbourg theatre, said he was inspired by 200 French mayors making a similar pledge last week.

The French government has come in for fierce criticism for the sluggish start to its vaccination campaign, which it insisted was now accelerating.

Some 12,500 people were vaccinated on Wednesday, more than twice as many as the previous day. Bruno Rétailleau, head of the opposition Republicans party in the Senate, said it was time France reformed its "obese, bureaucratic state".  

French theatres and cinemas were initially due to reopen this week but Jean Castex, the prime minister, is expected to confirm later on Thursday that they will remain shut.

“At this rate, we’ll remain closed for another year. We cannot simply complain. This petition is a way of getting out of a dead-end,” Mr Nordey told the paper.

On Wednesday, a string of French scientists and TV health celebrities received jabs.

However, Mr Castex has come in for criticism for not yet getting the vaccine himself.

France ramped up vaccinations on Wednesday, administering 12,500 doses

Credit: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg

The prime minister is expected to announce further restrictions later on Thursday, including extending a 6pm curfew to more parts of the country. Currently, 15 départements mainly in eastern and southeastern France must stay indoors at this time while the rest of the country is under an 8pm curfew.

He will likely confirm that bars and restaurants will not be able to reopen as hoped on January 20.

The government has already poured cold water on ski resorts’ hopes of re-opening ski lifts on January 7, saying these must remain shut for now. Resort managers hope Mr Castex will announce a new date on Thursday — reportedly January 20 — in order to “save the winter season”.

The prime minister is expected to confirm that France will open 100 collective vaccination centres, a figure due to rise to 500 in coming weeks.

Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the French scientific committee, said that France was “currently doing better than other European countries”. The number of hospitalised patients dropped slightly to 24,708 on Wednesday and those in intensive care remained roughly stable on 2,607.

However, new cases rose to 25,379.

“We are reaching worrying figures,” said Mr Delfraissy, who didn’t rule out “more restrictive measures” next week when the effects of Christmas and New Year become clearer.

On Wednesday, another top French epidemiologist warned that France was "two months behind England" in terms of circulation of the new, more contagious Covid variant.