The peak of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in France “appears to be behind us”, prime minister Jean Castex said on Thursday, announcing that travel restrictions will be relaxed from early next month, reports Yahoo! News.
Castex told reporters there had been a “genuine fall in the circulation of the virus over the last 10 days”, confirming that schools will reopen on Monday and restrictions confining people to a 10-kilometre (six-mile) radius of their homes would be dropped from May 3.
But the nationwide 7pm curfew will remain in place until the Covid-19 epidemic is under control, he said.
As Castex was speaking, however, France reported that 5,981 people were in intensive care units with Covid-19, up by 22 a day earlier, the second highest record of 2021.
A total of 102,164 people have died in France from the pandemic. After a slow start, however, the vaccine campaign is gaining pace with over 13 million people now given at least a first dose.
Health minister Olivier Véran said that France would begin offering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which requires only a single shot, from Saturday to people aged 55 and over.