Spring arrives in Paris, along with another Covid-19 Lockdown

This exclusion is less serious than the original one that paralyzed France a year ago. It is restricted to Paris and 15 other areas of France that have been hit hard by the spread of Covid-19 variants. Parisians are allowed to drive 10 kilometers from their homes with a permit, compared to last year when the limit was one kilometer.

But France’s third exclusion is perhaps the most demoralizing. The country looked enviously abroad because vaccines were developed in record time and deployed so rapidly in the US and UK that France began to wonder if it was also at the forefront of economic renewal.

Paris’ cafes and bistros are closed indefinitely. The Louvre is sealed. The Eiffel Tower is deserted. And the vaccine line is very long.

“My sister lives in New York – she’s been vaccinated and she’s younger than me,” said Cyril Dunn, a 54-year-old leather goods artisan. ‘In France, there are still vulnerable people who have not yet been vaccinated. I know 85-year-olds who are still waiting for an appointment. ‘

President Emmanuel Macron’s management of the crisis has deeply troubled many French people. The former investment banker maintains the European Union’s decision to jointly acquire vaccine stocks – an approach that has led to vaccine shortages across France and the rest of the continent. As of Friday, only 8% of the French population had received a single dose of Covid-19 vaccine and only 3% had been fully vaccinated.

Mr. Macron also sparked skepticism about a vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca PLC, which many European health authorities consider important to stem the tide of the pandemic.

At the end of January, Mr. Macron told a group of reporters that the vaccine is almost effective for people over 65, without providing evidence to substantiate his claim. His government then reversed the course in early March – to use it for older people – to suspend the use of the vaccine this week following reports that people who received it in other parts of Europe had developed rare blood clots, and some are dead.

On Thursday, Mr. Macron, Prime Minister Jean Castex, said the country would resume use of the AstraZeneca vaccine after the European Union’s health agency said it was safe and effective and did not increase the risk of blood clots. Mr. Castex received the AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday to bolster the government’s message.

The zigzag exacerbated confusion in a country with a history of vaccination against vaccines.

“I do not understand why they stopped,” said Eric Vigor, a 52-year-old banker. “If I could be vaccinated, I would be vaccinated immediately – including AstraZeneca.”

Jean Benmussa, a 74-year-old pensioner living in the suburb of Saint-Mandé just east of Paris, said the millions of people who had already taken the vaccines convinced him that the shots were safe, not the government.

“It was the same with everything. “The whole management of the pandemic was nonsense,” he said.

Frustrations are especially high about Mr. Macron’s approach to the latest exclusion. He rejected calls from city officials to shut down Paris in the depths of winter as the icy weather and variants of the virus began to spread across the country.

Now the hospital system in Paris is on the verge, forcing the authorities to transfer patients to areas with fewer cases. Nationwide, intensive care units are 83% full.

While waiting until spring to impose an exclusion, Mr. Macron also delayed the possibility of reopening the French economy. French officials said they expected the exclusion to shave 0.2% of France’s gross domestic product this year.

It’s a bitter pill for businesses across the country that have been closed since November. When France emerged from its second exclusion in mid-December, Mr. Macron that restaurants and bars should remain closed to reduce social contact. The same rule applies to museums, concert halls and other venues where people gather.

“What is most important for the economy is the lack of progress in lifting restrictions,” said Andrew Kenningham, chief economist at Capital Economics in Europe, which saw a sharp increase in France’s economic output in the second quarter. expected. “We expected governments by this time to be preparing to ease restrictions, or even to do so.”

For now, Parisians are learning to quell their spring enthusiasm. Earlier this month, Parisians flocked to the banks of the Seine amid the hot weather. The national police force, which reports to the central government, responded by sending columns of police officers to the riverbank to clear it.

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, said the operation was shocking and added that the government had acted without informing her in advance.

‘You can intervene if people do not have social distance or if they drink without masks. But the scenes I saw were not like that, ”said me. Hidalgo said. “There were a lot of parents with pushchairs, people went for walks.”

Write to Stacy Meichtry at [email protected] and Matthew Dalton at [email protected]