Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday announced that a curfew will be imposed from 9 pm to 6 am in number of cities, including Paris, starting from Friday midnight and last at least four weeks to stem the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
“A curfew will apply to the Ile-de-France region…and eight metropolitan areas — Grenoble, Lille, Rouen, Lyon, Aix-Marseille, Saint-Etienne, Toulouse, Montpellier and Rouen,” Macron said in a televised interview, Xinhua reported.
France has been in a second wave of the coronavirus epidemic with an average of 20,000 new infection cases per day. “We have now entered a phase to which we must react…The virus is everywhere in France,” Macron added.
The situation is worrying and the curfew is a “pertinent” measure while having the whole country locked down again would be “disproportionate”, he explained.
“We have not lost control. We are in a situation which is worrying and which justifies that we are neither inactive nor in panic. We have learned from the first wave,” Macron said.
The curfew does not ban driving between 9 pm to 6 am, but travel will be strictly limited unless with good reasons. “We must continue to be able to go to work in all sectors,” said Macron. “For those who have emergencies, health for example, there will be authorizations.”
