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France tightens coronavirus curfew in 15 départements

The French government on Friday announced that it was bringing forward by two hours a night time curfew in 15 regions to help combat the coronavirus, as infections remain high.

Published: 1 January 2021 14:13 CET
France tightens coronavirus curfew in 15 départements
French local police officers patrol in Nice, south-eastern France, on October 24, 2020, during a nighttime coronavirus curfew. Valery HACHE / AFP

The 15 of France's 101 départements affected by the switch to a curfew beginning at 6:00 pm rather than 8:00 pm include the Les Alpes-Maritimes département where the Mediterranean city of Nice is located.

The other areas are concentrated in the east of the country and Paris has, for now, been spared the additional restriction.

The 15 départements affected are:

Hautes-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes, Doubs, Ardennes, Jura, Marne, Haute-Marne, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse, Haute-Saône, Vosges, Territoire de Belfort, Moselle, Nièvre and Saône-et-Loire.

“The virus is continuing to spread in France… but with a disparity between regions,” said government spokesman Gabriel Attal as he announced the move.

“If the situation were to deteriorate further in certain areas, we will take the necessary decisions,” he told TF1 broadcaster.

The measure had been urged by mayors increasingly concerned that their local health systems are being overburdened by an influx of new cases.

Attal also confirmed that theatres, cinemas and concert halls would not be able to reopen from January 7, the most recent minimum date given for their closure.

Attal meanwhile defended the pace of France's campaign to vaccinate against Covid-19, which TF1 noted has seen just 332 people vaccinated in the country so far compared with over 130,000 in Germany since it began last weekend.

Arguing that France was targeting its campaign on care homes for the elderly which took more time, he said: “We are not going to judge a vaccination campaign that will last six months in just a few days”.

 

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HEALTH

France reports nearly 200 cholera cases in Mayotte

Nearly 200 cases of cholera have been reported on the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, which is struggling to contain the deadly epidemic.

Published: 21 June 2024 14:08 CEST
France reports nearly 200 cholera cases in Mayotte

“As of June 18th, 2024, 193 cases of cholera have been reported in Mayotte,” France’s Santé publique France health agency reported in its weekly update.

Of those, 172 were locally acquired cases, while 21 were in people infected in the neighbouring Comoros archipelago and countries on the African continent.

Cholera is an infectious disease typically causing severe diarrhoea, vomiting and muscle cramps. It spreads easily in unsanitary conditions.

Mayotte, which is home to around 320,000 people, reported its first locally acquired cases of cholera in late April, according to officials in Paris.

Two people have died since the beginning of the epidemic, one of them a three-year-old girl.

Santé publique France warned there was a particularly high risk of transmission in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, “as long as access to drinking water and sanitation is unsatisfactory”.

French authorities have been criticised for failing to secure access to drinking water to prevent a cholera epidemic in its overseas territory.

President Emmanuel Macron called for cholera to be ‘consigned to the past’ when he hosted a summit on Thursday on vaccine production in Africa.

Many parts of Africa have recently seen fatal outbreaks of cholera, which has highlighted the shortage of local vaccine production.

The Comoros, which has been affected by a cholera epidemic for the past four months, has recorded 134 deaths and more than 8,700 cases, according to a report published by local authorities this month.

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