Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

COVID-19

French authors to pay bookshop fines for staying open despite coronavirus rules

One of France's best-known authors, Alexandre Jardin, vowed on Sunday that writers would bail out rebel bookshop owners fined for opening in defiance of a nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

Published: 15 November 2020 13:48 CET
French authors to pay bookshop fines for staying open despite coronavirus rules
French book seller Florence Kammermann poses in her bookstore in Cannes, on November 13, 2020. She is keeping her store open, despite the second lockdown rules prohibiting it. Valery HACHE / AFP

Literature lovers are fuming over the government's shutting of bookstores, along with all other outlets selling “non-essential” goods or services, for the second time this year.

A handful of bookshops have openly flouted the shutdown, backed by writers, literary critics and tens of thousands of bookworms who argue that books are essential to well-being.

Jardin, who penned bestselling romance novels “Le Zebre” and “Fanfan”, has rallied in their defence.

He said on Sunday that authors would pay the fines incurred by rogue booksellers.

Jardin told Europe 1 radio that Didier van Cauwelaert, winner of the Prix Goncourt, France's top literary prize for his 1994 novel “Un Aller Simple”, had offered to cover any penalty imposed on a bookshop in the city of Cannes, leading the revolt.

“The next bookshop will be me, and the next somebody else,” he said, declaring that “no state has the moral right to close bookshops”.

READ MORE:

Calendar: The next key dates in France's lockdown

French PM says lockdown to stay in place until at least December 1st

'Freedom of speech' 

France has some of the highest book readership figures in the world, studies show, and one of the largest networks of independent bookstores.

While hairdressers, toy stores, perfumeries, florists, cinemas and malls have all been shut since October 30, the plight of bookshops has sparked the greatest public indignation.

In an open letter to President Emmanuel Macron, van Cauwelaert warned that restricting access to culture posed a threat to France's “precious freedom of speech”.

Jardin pointed out that other European countries, such as Belgium, had allowed bookshops to remain open.

The head of Grasset publishing house, Olivier Nora, complained booksellers were missing out on crucial  November-December sales accounting for 25 percent of annual revenues.

The French government has so far resisted pressure to ease a month-long partial lockdown imposed to curb a second wave of Covid-19 infections.

Prime Minister Jean Castex on Thursday did however raise the possibility that some shops might be allowed to reopen in December if current trends showing a decline in new infections continue.

The coronavirus has killed over 44,000 people in France. On Saturday, Macron tweeted that “the next few days will be decisive” and urged people to continue taking precautions.

READ MORE:

ANALYSIS: France enters lockdown again but how did we end up here?

 

Member comments

  2. Nice to see them doing their bit to help stop the spread of the virus.
    I would have thought that anyone who regards books as a life line would have enough books already to last a few months. Ridiculous.

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

HEALTH

France’s Covid-19 app to be ‘put to sleep’

France's Covid-tracker app, used for months for the all-important 'health pass' will be switched off today, health officials have confirmed.

Published: 30 June 2023 13:29 CEST
France’s Covid-19 app to be 'put to sleep'

Covid-19 screening in France reaches an important milestone on Friday, June 30th, 2023 – when the TousAntiCovid app is officially ‘put to sleep’.

The app, which was launched in June 2020 as France came out of its first lockdown of the pandemic and has undergone a number of iterations, including as a delivery device for the health pass, will be switched off. 

For most people, this anniversary will pass without mention. Few people have consulted the app in recent months, and it has sat dormant on many smartphones since France’s Covid-19 health pass requirement was suspended in March 2022.

Meanwhile, the Système d’Informations de DEPistage (SI-DEP) interface – which has been informing people about their test results since the Spring of 2020 – is also being shut down on June 30th, as per legal requirements.

The SI-DEP shutdown means that it will also be impossible to retrieve Covid test certificates issued before June 30th, should the need arise. All data held by the database will be “destroyed”, officials have said.

It has handled more than 320 million antigen and PCR tests since it was introduced.

This does not mean that testing for Covid-19 has stopped, or is now unnecessary. As reported recently, more than 1,000 deaths a week in Europe are still caused by the virus.

The shutdown of the national information system does not mean that people in France cannot still book an appointment for an antigen test at a pharmacy, or a PCR test at a laboratory. But the number of people going for testing is declining rapidly. In recent days, according to Le Parisien, just 15,000 people in France took a Covid test – the lowest number, it said, since the pandemic started.

Reimbursement rules for testing changed on March 1st, with only certain categories of people – minors, those aged 65 and over, or immunosuppressed patients – covered for the entire cost of testing.

From Friday, only PCR test results will be transmitted to authorities for data purposes, meaning pharmacists that only offer antigen testing will be locked out of the online interface to record test results.

The reason for the shift in priorities is to maintain “minimal epidemiological surveillance”, the Ministry of Health has reportedly told scientists.

As a result test certificates, showing a positive or negative result, will no longer be issued from July 1st. Since February 1st, anyone taking a test has had to give consent to share their data in order to obtain a certificate. 

SHOW COMMENTS