Some provinces in France, which were imposed a curfew from 6pm the previous day to 6am the next morning, from January 2, 2021 showed some positive signals. However, on the national scale, Covid-19 is still deteriorating day by day. Every day, France records more than 20,000 new cases of positive for the virus SARS-CoV-2, while the number of people hospitalized and ambulance increased steadily, albeit at a slow rate.
Faced with this situation, the Chairman of the Scientific Council, which was consulted by the French Government to propose anti-epidemic measures, said that France is likely to have a third blockade. Currently, France has recorded add 3 new variants originating from UK, South Africa and Brazil.
Professor Jean-François Delfraissy, Chairman of the Scientific Council said: “We have a lot of data showing very clearly that the virus originating from the UK, is accounting for about 7, 8 or 9% in some parts of France like Paris and possibly other regions. For a variant of the virus originating from South Africa, the first data shows that there may be about 1%. This means that 2 viruses have entered France. The third variant is the one originating from Brazil ”.
The chair also said that the current measures are not enough to stop the spread of new virus variants originating from the UK or South Africa. These viruses have completely changed the epidemic situation in France since about 3 weeks now, with a much faster rate of spread. The elderly and those with underlying disease are advised to quarantine themselves for the next 2 months.
The French government continues to assert that there has been no decision to block the whole country or block some localities at this time. However, the possibility of imposing a blockade is becoming clearer.
Since January 24, France officially strengthened its border control measures. Not long ago, all persons entering France from countries outside the European Union and the Schengen space were required to have a negative certification for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which was conducted within 72 hours before into France. And also starting January 24, this rule is open to all people entering France from the countries of the European Union themselves.