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RIVIERA

The French towns and suburbs subject to new weekend lockdown

A total of 63 towns and suburbs along the French Riviera, including Nice and Cannes are subject to a new weekend lockdown from Saturday, as well as the northern city of Dunkirk and its suburbs. Here is the full list of municipalities where the lockdown applies.

Published: 22 February 2021 20:38 CET
Updated: 27 February 2021 09:10 CET
The French towns and suburbs subject to new weekend lockdown

Nice and the French Riviera

Authorities in the south-eastern French département of Alpes-Maritimes announced on Monday that a new weekend lockdown would be imposed in urban areas along the coast including Nice – France’s fifth largest city.

The weekend lockdown, brought in due to rising Covid-19 infections and overrun hospital wards, means inhabitants will be confined to their homes and only permitted to leave for various essential reasons such as grocery shopping, exercise or medical appointments.

Prefect Bernard Gonzalez said the urban coastal area from Théoule-sur-Mer in the west to Menton on the Italian border would be subject to the lockdown that will initially be imposed for the next two weekends. 

Later on Monday local newspaper Nice Matin published a list of the 63 communes covered by the new restrictions.

READ ALSO: Nice and parts of French Riviera impose weekend lockdown as Covid cases soar

Here’s the complete list:

  • Antibes
  • Aspremont
  • Auribeau-sur-Siagne
  • Le Bar-sur-loup
  • Beaulieu-sur-mer
  • Beausoleil
  • Berre-les-Alpes
  • Biot
  • Blausasc
  • Cabris
  • Cagnes-sur-mer
  • Cannes
  • Le Cannet
  • Cantaron
  • Cap d’Ail
  • Carros
  • Castagniers
  • Castellar
  • Chateauneuf-Grasse
  • Châteauneuf-Villevieille
  • La Colle-sur-loup
  • Colomars
  • Contes
  • Drap
  • Eze
  • Falicon
  • Gattières
  • La Gaude
  • Gorbio
  • Gourdon
  • Grasse
  • Mandelieu-la-Napoule
  • Menton
  • Mouans-Sartoux
  • Mougins
  • Nice
  • Opio
  • Pégomas
  • Peillon
  • Peille
  • Peymenade
  • Roquebrune-Cap-Martin
  • Roquefort-les-pins
  • La Roquette-sur-Siagne
  • Le Rouret
  • Sainte-Agnès
  • Saint-André-de-la-Roche
  • Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
  • Saint-Jeannet
  • Saint-Laurent-du-Var
  • Saint-Paul de Vence
  • Spéracédès
  • Théoule-sur-mer
  • Le Tignet
  • Tourrette-Levens
  • Tourrettes-sur-loup
  • La Trinité
  • La Turbie
  • Valbonne
  • Vallauris
  • Vence
  • Villefranche-sur-mer
  • Villeneuve-Loubet

Dunkirk

The northern city of Dunkirk and the surrounding areas, where the more contagious UK Covid-19 variant has been gaining ground, is also under a weekend lockdown from Saturday.

In total 250,000 residents are subject to the curfew in the 57 different communes around Dunkirk in the Nord département.

Twenty départements in France have been placed on “heightened surveillance” with the threat of extra health restrictions including weekend lockdowns as Covid virus numbers rise, the French PM announced Thursday.

READ ALSO: 20 areas of France put on alert for extra restrictions including weekend lockdowns

Member comments

  1. Wow. I didn’t realise that these viruses in France were so evolved and intelligent. Not only do they only come out at night but now also only come out to play at weekends in certain areas.

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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. 

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