The French government spared the Paris region from a weekend coronavirus lockdown for now and pledged to accelerate the vaccine rollout in two dozen high-risk zones in an effort to ease the load on hospitals and stave off further restrictions, reports U.S. News & World Report.
President Emmanuel Macron is determined to keep the economy open as long as possible even as the COVID-19 infection rate rises nationally.
Prime minister Jean Castex did however announce on Thursday a weekend lockdown for the northerly Pas-de-Calais area, like that already imposed on the French Riviera. A nationwide nightly curfew has been in place since mid-December.
"This decision not to lockdown (other areas) has a flip-side. For the government, it is to accelerate testing and the vaccine deployment, from this weekend," Castex told a news conference.
Macron hopes to avoid a further setback for the economy in the expectation that the country's vaccination programme, which has targeted the most vulnerable but been slow, will gradually bring down the numbers of people falling sick and dying.
More vaccine centres would open over weekends in 23 high-risk regions, pharmacists would be able to deliver shots from mid-March, and supplies of vaccine doses would increase in the coming weeks, Castex said.