The French prime minister has called on people to limit gatherings in their homes as he warned the country’s battle against coronavirus would last for several months more.
Jean Castex said the government could not police people’s behaviour in their own properties but urged the French public to “respect the protection measures” at home .
“I cannot regulate things in private spaces. It is not legally possible, we are the country of public freedoms and it is not possible under our constitution. I ask people, I keep asking … the only people who can introduce regulations in private spaces are the people themselves,” Castex said.
“We are engaged in battle against a virus, it’s not finished, it will last several months more, I think.
“What we have to avoid are people glued to each other, not wearing a mask, in enclosed spaces. I ask them to respect the protection measures in private places as they do in public places.”
Asked if families could meet elderly relatives during the upcoming school holidays, he said: “Of course, but by being careful and following protection measures.”
Coronavirus cases in France – graph
Sunday evening’s figures for the previous 24 hours in France showed a further 16,101 confirmed Covid-19 cases. This followed a record high of nearly 28,000 cases announced on Saturday. There were an additional 46 deaths in the previous 24 hours attributed to Covid-19 on Sunday, but this figure is likely to be an underestimate due to slow reporting of data at weekends.
The percentage of positive tests also rose to 11.5%, double the rate three weeks ago. The director of the Paris region health authority, Aurélien Rousseau, said on Monday that the percentage of positive tests in and around the capital had risen to 17% and was spreading particularly quickly among young adults.
France’s health ministry says the authorities have been carrying out about 1m Covid-19 tests a week since September and the number of positive cases has risen higher than the increase in testing.
The incidence level per 100,000 people among the 20-30 age group had risen to 800, compared with 506 two weeks ago. The alert level is set at 50 per 100,000 people.
Castex said local lockdowns were envisaged if the situation worsened but a general nationwide lockdown could not be ruled out. “We are in a difficult situation. The reality of the second wave is here. We all have to mobilise to face it and we mustn’t lower our guard,” he said.
“We will take measures depending on the situation with the epidemic. If in 15 days we see that the health situation is seriously worsening, that the intensive care beds are under pressure, we could take additional measures.”
Castex was speaking as two more cities, Toulouse and Montpellier, were declared zones of “maximum alert” with increased restrictions including the shutting of bars, health clubs, gyms and swimming pools.
Castex said the French had lowered their guard during the long summer holidays after the strict two-month lockdown was lifted.
“We could not remain locked down for longer. We ended the lockdown in an efficient way, I think,” he said.
“Then the holidays arrived and the French collectively thought it was over, behind them. Me, I didn’t think that … I didn’t take a holiday and, as I kept saying, the virus wasn’t taking a holiday either. But the French thought the virus had disappeared a little too quickly,” Castex told France Info radio.
He said a new version of the contact-tracing app StopCovid, which has had little take-up in France, would be released later this month. The app has been downloaded only about 3m times. The prime minister said it had not had the “necessary response”. Last month, Castex and several other government ministers admitted they had not downloaded StopCovid.
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