covid-19

Did Emmanuel Macron break his government's Covid-19 rules?

France — Link

The French president, who on Thursday went into self isolation after being diagnosed with Covid-19, had the previous evening met with around ten senior aides and elected officials for a dinner which went on until midnight, while regulations imposed on the public to slow the coronavirus epidemic stipulate no more than six adults should meet socially together and all must be back home by 8pm.

Macron tests positive for Covid-19

France — Link

French President Emmanuel Macron has testsed positive for Covid-19, his office announced on Thursday, and as a result his prime minister Jean Castex and several several European leaders recently in contact with the 42-year-old are now self-isolating

French PM says Covid-19 vaccinations could begin late December

France — Link

French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Wednesday that the Pfizer/BioNTech  anti-Covid-19 vaccine could begin to be administered in France in late December if it is approved by the European Union regulatory agency at a key meeting next week.

Why was a region of the French Alps suddenly hit by a Covid-19 ‘tsunami’?

France — Report

When the coronavirus epidemic swept France this spring, the département (county) of Savoie, in the French Alps, was relatively unaffected. But last month, as the second wave of Covid-19 emerged, it became the country’s worst-hit by virus infections. Why? François Bonnet reports.

France to replace lockdown with nightly curfew, venues to stay closed

France — Link

PM Jean Castex said that families would be allowed to travel to celebrate Christmas together in France but that museums, theatres and cinemas will remain closed for an extra three weeks as the number of new Covid-19 infections begins to slowly rise again.

Elderly woman fined in France for lockdown form error

France — Link

The elderly woman diagnosed with dementia must pay a fine of €166 for having put the wrong date on her form for leaving home during lockdown.

France to impose border checks to stop skiing abroad

France — Link

In common with Germany and Italy, France is shutting its ski lifts over Christmas to stop the spread of Covid-19, but Swiss slopes are already open.

'Non-essential' High Street businesses re-open in France

France — Link

One month after the second lockdown was imposed in France to contain the resurge in Covid-19 cases, non-essntial shops and businesses, except bars and restaurants, were allowed to re-open as of Saturday amid a slow but regular fall in recorded deaths and new infections nationwide.    

Macron announces easing of lockdown measures

France — Link

In a televised speech to the nation on Tuesday evening, French President Emmanuel Macron announced measures to ease the second firm lockdown on public movement introduced at the end of October to attempt to contain a resurgence in the coronavirus epidemic, with shops and entertainment venues to be reopened as of next weekend, but cafés and restaurants will have to wait at least until Januarty 20th before resuming business.

The viral French film promoting the Covid-19 conspiracy theory

France — Analysis

Released online earlier this month, Hold-Up is a French pseudo-documentary which promotes the conspiracy theory that Covid-19 was created in a plot by a group of powerful individuals to reshape the world in their interests. Despite the absurdity of the idea, and its inability to produce evidence to support its case, the film attracted an audience of more than three million in the first week of its appearance. Lucie Delaporte reports on an exercise in manipulation of the gullible.   

French government rules out early lifting of Covid-19 lockdown

France — Link

While slight improvements on numbers of Covid-19 virus infections and hospitalisations have begun emerging across France, the government's spokesman on Wednesday said 'we're still far from' lifting the lockdown imposed for a second time at the end of October, dampening hopes of small high-street businesses for a re-opening of trading before Christmas.

French police step up COVID lockdown checks in Paris

France — Link

Prime minister Jean Castex has said people are not abiding by the rules as strictly as during the first lockdown back in the spring.

Coronavirus deaths cast a pall over France as lockdown continues

France — Link

France is averaging more than 500 coronavirus deaths a day, though daily new cases have begun to fall in recent days.

Survey shows more than half the French flout lockdown rules

France — Link

Ifop survey showed that 60 percent had flouted the rules at least once, either by giving a false reason for going out on their self-signed permission slip or by meeting up with family and friends.

Top Green MEP wants France to make Covid vaccine mandatory

France — Link

Yannick Jadot's comments come a day after American laboratory Pfizer reported its candidate vaccine had shown 90 percent success rate in preventing people from catching the coronavirus.