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Marseille and Paris fury over French government Covid clampdown

French Health Minister Olivier Veran speaks near a map of France showing the Marseille region in red during a press conference in Paris, - Eliot Blondet/ Abaca
French Health Minister Olivier Veran speaks near a map of France showing the Marseille region in red during a press conference in Paris, - Eliot Blondet/ Abaca

Marseille and Paris on Thursday reacted furiously to fresh restrictions due to rising Covid infections, with local leaders in both cities saying they had not been consulted by the government about the clampdown.

All bars and restaurants are to be shut for two weeks starting Saturday in Marseille, southern France after health minister Olivier Véran warned that swathes of the country, including Paris, risked reaching a “critical situation” within weeks without further restrictions.

The Aix-Marseille area, along with the overseas French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, is now on “maximum alert”.

That is the second-highest level of alert before total lockdown and is reached when the infection rate per 100,000 surpasses 250 for the general population and 100 for old people while at least 30 per cent of intensive care beds are taken up by Covid patients.

Along with the bar closures, all establishments receiving the public will be shut except those with strict protocols in place.

Paris, meanwhile, now joins a string of other major cities, including Bordeaux, Lyon and Nice, which are on “reinforced alert”, meaning that all bars and restaurants must shut after 10pm starting Monday and private groups must be reduced to ten people and public organised gatherings to 1,000, down from 5,000.

Hours after the new rules were announced in Paris, local politicians slammed the stricter rules as a step too far that would spell economic catastrophe.

Benoit Payan, deputy mayor of Marseille, gestures during a press conference on September 24, 2020 in the southern French city, - CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP
Benoit Payan, deputy mayor of Marseille, gestures during a press conference on September 24, 2020 in the southern French city, - CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP

"It was with surprise and anger that I learned of a decision on which Marseille city hall was not consulted," Marseille mayor Michele Rubirola wrote on Twitter.

"There is nothing in the public health situation that justifies this move. I won't allow the people of Marseille to become the victims of political decisions that no one understands.”

She called for a ten-day “moratorium” to see whether tentative signs of a slowdown in infection rates due to recent extra restrictions was taking effect.

Renaud Muselier, president of the regional council of Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, which includes Marseille, said the closures amounted to a “collective punishment” and “quasi-reconfinement” for the region.

Franck Trouet, spokesman for the hotel and restaurant union GNI, called for the “unjust” decision to be reversed, calling it a fig leaf to hide the fact that the government was “incapable of handling this crisis”.

Maryse Joissains, the outspoken Right-wing mayor of Aix, which also faces total closures, told La Provence: “Shut up Véran! The upper administration is going mad.”

In Paris, mayor Anne Hidalgo complained that closing bars earlier in the capital was not a “pertinent measure”, asking why the government had “relaxed health protocols in schools while shutting bars in Paris at 10pm?”

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, wearing a protective face mask, - STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/ AFP
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, wearing a protective face mask, - STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/ AFP

Mr Véran denied the decisions were unilateral and that the “principle of responsibility must come first”. The prime minister’s office added that it was out of the question to waive the restrictions. “We cannot wait another ten days,” it warned.

Some 69 out of 100 of France’s départements or counties, are now considered “red” zones and the national R number is above one while the positivity rate has gone up from five to six per cent in a week, the health minister confirmed on Wednesday night.

While he said there was still time to exit a return to an exponential trajectory, “if we don’t take rapid measures, we risk reaching a critical situation in certain worst-affected regions within weeks”.

Paris, where the infection rate per 100,000 people is now above 200, had until now avoided draconian measures, only obliging people to wear face masks in public but avoiding other restrictions.

However, Mr Véran warned that the capital’s health system were “now seriously stretched” as the number of hospitalisations had doubled in the past week.

The number of Covid patients in intensive care was now 305, accounting for 27 per cent of intensive care beds, compared to 18 per cent a week ago. If nothing was done, that figure would reach 40 per cent by October 10 and 85 per cent by November 11, he warned.

He issued a “solemn call” on the French to keep social interactions to a minimum and respect social distancing “both in public and private spheres” - for the first time mentioning the term “social bubble”.

“We can’t be extremely vigilant in the metro, the bus, in the office and in shops and then let all vigilance go when you are in a bar or at home inviting friends in contact with the family,” he said.

President Emmanuel Macron has himself insisted that “we must learn to live with the virus” and in recent weeks appeared to baulk at the kind of tighter restrictions imposed in the UK.