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HEALTH

France extends curfew to cover half the country as Covid-19 situation worsens

France has extended its nighttime curfew to 54 départements - roughly half of the country - as the Prime Minister says the health situation 'continues to deteriorate'.

Published: 22 October 2020 17:03 CEST
Updated: 23 October 2020 08:59 CEST
France extends curfew to cover half the country as Covid-19 situation worsens
Prime minister Jean Castex announced the extension of the curfew. Photo: AFP

For the past week the whole of the greater Paris Île-de-France region and the metropoles of Lille, Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Grenoble, Aix-Marseille, Montpellier, Rouen and Toulouse have been the subject of a 9pm to 6am curfew.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that this measure would be extended to cover 38 new départements, starting at midnight on Friday/Saturday.

The new rules will cover a total of 54 of France's 96 mainland départements – and approximately 46 million people – and will continue for the next six weeks.

MAP: These are the areas of France under curfew

 

Castex said: “Let’s say it clearly, the situation is serious. It’s serious in France and in Europe.

“These past days the situation has continued to deteriorate.

“The number of cases has trebled over the past week and the number of deaths continue to rise.”

The rules for the curfew in the new zones will be the same as those already in place in Paris and other cities – people only allowed out of their homes for essential reasons between 9pm and 6am and every trip out of the home during that period requiring a permission form.

READ ALSO What you need to know about France's new nighttime curfew 

During the first week of curfew, Castex said that 32,033 police checks had been made and 4,777 fines issued.

The fine for breaching curfew is €135, rising to €3,750 for repeat offenders.

Castex added: “If we do not collectively succeed in curbing the epidemic, we will have to take tougher measures.

“We still have time to avoid that, but there is not much time left.”

The full list of départements concerned are; Loire, Rhône, Nord, Paris, Isère, Hauts-de-Seine, Val-d'Oise, Val-de-Marne, Seine-Saint-Denis, Essonne, Bouches-du-Rhône, Haute-Garonne, Yvelines, Hérault, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Loire, Ain, Savoie, Ardèche, Saône-et-Loire, Aveyron, Ariège, Tarn-et-Garonne, Tarn, Pyrénées-Orientales, Gard, Vaucluse, Puy-de-Dôme, Hautes-Alpes, Pas-de-Calais, Drôme, Oise, Haute-Savoie, Jura, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Haute-Corse, Calvados, Hautes-Pyrénées, Corse-du-Sud, Lozère, Haute-Vienne, Côte-d'Or, Ardennes, Var, Indre-et-Loire, Aube, Loiret, Maine-et-Loire, Bas-Rhin, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Marne, Alpes-Maritimes and Ille-et-Vilaine.

New anti-Covid app

The government also relaunched their Covid-19 app as TousAntiCovid, developed after the former app – StopCovid – flopped.

StopCovid was “not downloaded enough times to be an effective tool in the fight against the coronavirus,” Digital Affairs Secretary Cedric O said. “It was a missed opportunity.”

“This is only useful if a lot of people use it,” he said, urging all French to download the relaunched app as a “supplementary health barrier gesture” to protect them from the virus.

“If you have crossed paths with a person who is infected with the virus and both of you have the app, you will be alerted as soon as that person receive their test results,” he said.

For more details on how to find the app and how it works – click here.

 

Member comments

  1. A curfew isn’t going to do it. Travel restrictions should be brought back in but Macron is just to afraid. Parisians have just arrived in my village for the school holidays, so a curfew in Paris is not working fine for us living in an area with few cases.

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HEALTH

The different ways you can make a doctor’s appointment in France

Booking a medical appointment in France can be time-consuming – especially if you are new to the country and are looking for an English-speaking doctor.

Published: 13 May 2024 16:52 CEST
The different ways you can make a doctor's appointment in France

You do not need a carte vitale to book a doctor’s appointment in France – anyone who needs medical help while in the country is entitled to it, but you may not be entitled to any reimbursement if you are not part of the social security system.

Booking a GP’s appointment can be as simple as phoning up your friendly neighbourhood GP, or using an online service such as Doctolib. 

It helps a lot, if you have a médecin traitant – an attending GP, who adds you (and your family, if they can) to their list of patients. 

READ ALSO Explained: How to register with a doctor in France

It is not always easy to find one. Some parts of the country are short of GPs, which means doctors’ lists can fill up very quickly. But it is important that anyone who lives in France is registered with a named GP, especially if they have a carte vitale.

As well as being the main point of contact between patients and the medical profession in all its guises, it is financially responsible to be registered with a GP in France.

Reimbursement on consultations is typically 70 percent through the French healthcare system, but just 30 percent for anyone without a declared doctor. Meanwhile, top-up mutuelle health insurance companies usually require you to declare a médecin traitant and if you don’t, you may not be able to receive reimbursements on certain treatments.

Bear in mind, it is your responsibility to register with a local médecin traitant. But, even after you have done so, you can still make an appointment with any doctor, anywhere in France, and arrange specialist treatment, if you need it. 

READ ALSO 5 things to know about visiting a doctor in France

How do you go about making a GP appointment in France?

There are several options.

Some health centres – more often in larger towns and cities – operate a walk-in policy. But expect waits to be lengthy. Do not, however, assume that your GP operates a system like this.

You can phone for an appointment. This is another very common method. Your GP will have their own system for making appointments – which may even include something that looks, to the uninitiated, very much like a casual walk-in policy. 

Some may have an assistant to deal with booking appointments and other administration. Others may deal with appointments themselves, and may – for example – operate some sort of triage system based on voice messages from patients. 

What about online booking systems?

And many practitioners are now attached to websites, such as Doctolib. As of 2023, about half of all GP appointments in France were made using Doctolib.

READ ALSO How to use: French medical website Doctolib

Be aware that other online booking systems are available. Doctolib is one of the best known, but your GP may be attached to another system, like the health ministry approved site ‘LeMedecin.Fr’.

This website also has a feature where you can take an immediate online consultation with whatever doctor is available at that moment. By clicking ‘Consultez en vidéo maintenant’ you will be connected to the next doctor who is free. This option may involve an additional charge between €5-10 on top of the price of the consultation, and you will be expected to pay when booking.

If you have any trouble with either of these websites, you can go through the list of registered generalists per département on the ‘Ameli’ website. If you use this option, you will need to call the doctor to see if they are open or available for appointments.

In terms of wait times, online systems have helped to significantly reduce the delay between booking and getting an appointment.

According to a 2023 study by Doctolib, about half of all GP appointments were available within three days from the time of booking on their platform.

Similarly, you can use online platforms to check the medical professional’s qualifications and languages spoken, as well as filter based on the doctor’s English abilities. However, this should be taken with a grain of salt because not every medical professional with English listed on their Doctolib page speaks fluent English. 

An increasing number of doctorsoffer video consultations, known as télémédecine in France. This allows professionals – particularly those in more rural areas – to diagnose less serious conditions remotely. This type of consultation is usually only available from those medical practices that are attached to online booking systems. 

Some pharmacies have also begun offering walk-in télémedicine consults, using ‘Medadom’ machines. More information here.

What about specialists?

In France, you book your own consultations with specialists, even if you are referred by a doctor (your GP may offer a recommendation, but won’t always). The good news is that many specialists do use online booking services. Those that do not usually have assistants to take care of the appointments.

READ ALSO: Urgent care: How to get non-emergency medical treatment in France

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