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COVID-19 RULES

French local authorities impose early bar closures and restrictions on gatherings as Covid rates rise

Early bar closures and a maximum of 10 people in public gatherings have been imposed by local authorities in one of France's worst affected areas for Covid, as many other authorities reimpose mask rules.

Published: 26 July 2021 16:10 CEST
French local authorities impose early bar closures and restrictions on gatherings as Covid rates rise
A restaurant owner checks customers' health passes at a restaurant in Ile Rousse. Photo: Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP.

From Tuesday, July 27th, gatherings of more than 10 people will be prohibited on the beach and in other public areas after 9pm across the Haute-Corse département, which covers the northern half of the island of Corsica.

It will also be necessary to wear a mask in busy outdoor areas in the following towns: Bastia, Corte, Calvi, Ile-Rousse, Calenzana and Saint-Florent. This was already the case in the Balagne area.

Further restrictions will come into effect on August 1st, the Préfet François Ravier announced during a press conference on Monday. From that date, bars and restaurants will have to close at midnight, and events such as weddings where more than 50 people gather will have to be declared at the préfecture.

READ ALSO Bars and restaurants in French holiday resorts face possibility of early closures as Covid cases rise

“It was these types of festive family events which were responsible, at least in the beginning in Balagne, for the appearence of clusters,” Ravier said.

Corsica has been particularly hard hit by the fourth wave of Covid-19 which has begun to emerge in France. The incidence rate in Haute-Corse is currently 699 for 100,000 inhabitants – the second highest rate in France after the French Caribbean island of Martinique, and well above the alert level of 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

The popular tourist destination is one of a number of coastal areas which have seen a more dramatic increase in case numbers than other parts of France.

EXPLAINED: Where in France do you have to wear a face mask in the street?

“We are deeply worried knowing that during the summer, generally speaking, hospitals are already put under strain as the population is multiplied by three or four,” Ravier said.

But local authorities are not currently considering implementing a curfew, the prefect added.

Prime Minister Jean Castex said last week that it may be necessary to introduce more “braking measures” in areas that have high case numbers, but that it would be up to local authorities to take those decisions.

Bars and restaurants are already made to close at 11 pm in the south-western département of Pyrénées-Orientale. In Haute-Corse itself, the measure has been in place since July 14th for 37 communes.

A number of areas have also reintroduced mandatory outdoors mask-wearing: you can find the full list HERE.

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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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