Photographer: Benjamin Girette / Bloomberg
Photographer: Benjamin Girette / Bloomberg
The French government is delaying a troubling decision to close the country again, and is considering options to delay new variants of Covid-19, as the current evening clock is considered inadequate.
President Emmanuel Macron “asked for additional analysis” on the spread of the virus before deciding on any new restrictions, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday. Maintaining the status quo is ‘unlikely’, as the national evening clock between 18:00 and 06:00 does not do enough, and a strict exclusion is an option being considered, he said.
Macron is under pressure to shut down the economy for the third time in less than a year as doctors and researchers raise the alarm about mutations of the coronavirus spreading across the country.
But with a presidential race underway next year, the French leader must also address criticism of the handling of the crisis, including a slow start to the vaccination campaign. And while the increasing number of cases and deaths in the UK shows the dangers of the new virus variants, riots in the Netherlands against a government-run clock show the risks of stricter measures.
Onrus Risk
Christophe Castaner, head of Macron’s party at the National Assembly, told the newspaper Le Parisien that there was also a risk of ‘civil disobedience’ in France if a new closure was introduced.
Voters now have far less appetite for strict measures than at the start of the pandemic, with 93% of adults approving the first exclusion, compared to just 67% in favor of a third, according to a recent Elabe. opinion poll.
“I know there is a fatigue,” Attal said during the press conference. A decision on whether measures will be tightened depends on health indicators, he said.
France’s second exclusion starts at the end of October and ends in mid-December with a curfew extended earlier this month. This brought only partial relief to the health care system, as hospitalizations and patients in intensive care were more than five times higher than in August.
Economic contraction
Restaurants, cafes, clubs, theaters, cinemas and sports halls have been closed since October and are supported by state aid, as are many parts of the economy.
According to a study by the Ministry of Finance quoted by Parisien, a third exclusion would cause an economic contraction of 10% to 18% compared to pre-crisis levels, depending on the severity of the measures. During the first – and strictest exclusion – in the spring of 2020, activity shrank by more than a third.
While the government will give a strong downturn to its economy in the second half of the year, another closure will threaten its growth forecasts.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called a third exclusion a “last resort” on Wednesday. A recent survey by the French statistical agency showed increasing concern in households in January, as consumers want to save more cash for difficult times. Consumer sentiment is at its lowest since November.
“Let’s see where we are,” Le Maire said. “There’s no hurry.”
The more contagious UK variant of the virus represented 9.4% of cases in an analysis of positive tests in the Paris region between 11 and 21 January. In France, hospitalizations have climbed to the highest level since early December over the past two weeks. and the number of seriously ill Covid patients in intensive care rose to over 3,000 this week.
Macron could make another final decision in the coming days – the defense cabinet, a small and close-knit group of ministers meeting around the president and prime minister, has met on weekends in the past.
– Assisted by Helene Fouquet and William Horobin
(Add rating of the current evening clock in the first paragraph, economic impact of the closure in the 10th.)