PARIS (Reuters) – Camila Campodonico was in Paris on Thursday night when the government announced that the city was entering a new blockade to combat COVID-19, and she knew her plans for a meeting with friends this weekend is over.
“I heard it and said, ‘Oh no, not again.’ A conclusion. ‘ I was not very happy, ”says Campodonico, a student from Argentina who works temporarily at a marketing company.
With the intensive care units almost overflowing, French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that residents of Paris can only leave the house for essential travel or exercise, and that non-essential travel to other parts of the country is prohibited.
A large number of Parisians were on their way to train stations on Friday morning so they could get out of the city before the restrictions, which would last a month, would take effect at midnight.
At the Gare de l’Est station in Paris, there were long lines of people at the ticket office. People, some with pets, rushed to get on the train en route to Strasbourg and Luxembourg.
Valentino Armilli, 27, is visiting his parents for the weekend in Thionville, in the Lorraine region in eastern France. He made the decision to go there on Thursday night due to the new exclusion.
‘My parents had COVID a month ago and I have not seen them yet. “This weekend is the last time I will be able to see them,” he said.
At Montparnasse train station, Anna Henry, a 21-year-old student, said she had decided to go to her parents in Brittany, western France, and described the latest Paris exclusion as a bit too much.
Anthony Massat, 23, also a student, was catching a train to Toulouse in southwestern France: “There is no lock-up in the south, so it will be a little more free.”
Additional reporting by Lucien Libert; Written by Christian Lowe; Edited by Gareth Jones