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COVID-19 RULES

Bars to close at 11pm in southern French département after rise in Delta cases

Two French départements, the Pyrénées Orientales and Bas-Rhin reimposed compulsory mask-wearing outdoors after a worrying rise in cases of the Delta variant. In the Pyrénnées Orientales bars and restaurants will also have to close at 11pm.

Published: 17 July 2021 13:15 CEST
Bars to close at 11pm in southern French département after rise in Delta cases
Authorities in the Pyrénées-Orientales département announced on Friday that compulsory mask-wearing would be reimposed in all public spaces except beaches. Photo by RAYMOND ROIG / AFP

Authorities in the Pyrénées-Orientales département announced on Friday that compulsory mask-wearing would be reimposed in all public spaces except beaches – a measure that is currently in place in towns across the country that are experiencing a rise in Covid-19 cases.

From Saturday, residents over the age of 11 in the northern Bas-Rhin département will also be required to wear masks in public outdoor places such as markets, public transport and crowded areas.

The incidence rate has more than doubled in just a week, authorities said, rising from 34,7 to almost 50 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

EXPLAINED: Which towns in France have imposed rules on face masks in the street?

However, on Saturday local authorities in the Pyrénées-Orientales announced further restrictions. Bars, restaurants and beach establishments will have to close at 11pm, in a further attempt to curb the rise in cases of the Delta variant.

The measures will come into effect on Sunday 18th July and will stay in place until August 2nd.

The number of Covid cases has risen sharply in the past few days in the southern département, which is on the border with Spain.

It now has the highest incidence rate in the country, at 257 per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to just 12,7 on July 2nd.

Covid-19 incidence rate in France by département. Source: CovidTracker

In the past week, almost 1% of 20 year-olds tested positive for Covid in the Pyrénées-Orientales.

The Delta variant, which was first discovered in India has rapidly become dominant in most parts of France. It is reported to be responsible for around 70 percent of cases.

France has tightened restrictions for people coming from Spain, and from Saturday requires a negative 24-hour Covid test for non-vaccinated travellers crossing the border.

READ ALSO: France to require 24-hour test for UK and some EU countries over delta variant fears

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COVID-19 RULES

End of the pandemic? What the expiry of Sweden’s Covid laws really means

With the expiry of Sweden's two temporary Covid-19 laws, the downgrading of the virus's threat classification, and the end of the last travel restrictions, April, officially at least, marks the end of the pandemic. We explain what it means.

Published: 1 April 2022 13:07 CEST
End of the pandemic? What the expiry of Sweden's Covid laws really means

What are the two laws which expire on April 1st? 

Sweden’s parliament voted last week to let the two temporary laws put in place to battle the Covid-19 pandemic expire on April 1st.

The first law is the so-called Covid-19 law, or “the law on special restrictions to limit the spread of the Covid-19 illness”, which was used during the pandemic to temporarily empower the authorities to limit the number of visitors to shops, gyms, and sports facilities. It also gave the government power to limit the number of people who could gather in public places like parks and beaches. 

The second law was the “law on temporary restrictions at serving places”. This gave the authorities, among other things, the power to limit opening times, and force bars and restaurants to only serve seated customers.  

What impact will their expiry have? 

The immediate impact on life in Sweden will be close to zero, as the restrictions imposed on the back of these two laws were lifted months ago. But it does means that if the government does end up wanting to bring back these infection control measures, it will have to pass new versions of the laws before doing so. 

How is the classification of Covid-19 changing? 

The government decided at the start of February that it would stop classifying Covid-19 both as a “critical threat to society” and “a disease that’s dangerous to the public” on April 1st.

These classifications empowered the government under the infectious diseases law that existed in Sweden before the pandemic to impose health checks on inbound passengers, place people in quarantine, and ban people from entering certain areas, among other measures. 

What impact will this change have? 

Now Covid-19 is no longer classified as “a disease that’s dangerous to the public”, or an allmänfarlig sjukdom, people who suspect they have caught the virus, are no longer expected to visit a doctor or get tested, and they cannot be ordered to get tested by a court on the recommendation of an infectious diseases doctor. People with the virus can also no longer be required to aid with contact tracing or to go into quarantine. 

Now Covid-19 is no longer classified as “a critical threat to society”, or samhällsfarlig, the government can no longer order health checks at border posts, quarantine, or ban people from certain areas. 

The end of Sweden’s last remaining Covid-19 travel restrictions

Sweden’s last remaining travel restriction, the entry ban for non-EU arrivals, expired on March 31st.  This means that from April 1st, Sweden’s travel rules return to how they were before the Covid-19 pandemic began. 

No one will be required to show a vaccination or test certificate to enter the country, and no one will be barred from entering the country because their home country or departure country is not deemed to have a sufficiently good vaccination program or infection control measures. 

Does that mean the pandemic is over? 

Not as such. Infection rates are actually rising across Europe on the back of yet another version of the omicron variant. 

“There is still a pandemic going on and we all need to make sure that we live with it in a balanced way,” the Public Health Agency’s director-general, Karin Tegmark Wisell, told SVT. 

Her colleague Sara Byfors told TT that this included following the “fundamental recommendation to stay home if you are sick, so you don’t spread Covid-19 or any other diseases”. 

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