Concern is mounting among health experts that France is not doing enough to curb a rise in coronavirus infections, particularly among younger people, as a third wave fuelled by the B117 variant first detected in the UK accelerates across Europe, reports The Guardian.
Announcing 45,000 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the French health minister, Olivier Véran, on Thursday banned outdoor gatherings of more than six people and added three more départements, including the area around Lyon, to 16 already placed under tougher mobility restrictions.
France is under a nightly curfew and restaurants, bars, museums and cinemas remain closed nationwide. Last week the government also shut non-essential shops and further limited movement in the Paris region and parts of the north, but it has so far held off taking stricter nationwide measures, seeking what it calls “a third way”.
Solen Kernéis, an infectious diseases specialist at Bichat hospital in northern Paris, told Agence France-Presse: “I understand the strategy of wanting to do gradual measures, but with the situation we are in I’m not sure that they are going to slow down the epidemic.
“For the last week, it’s been extremely worrying. The curve is really exponential. We’re in a sharply accelerating phase of the epidemic.”