Jean Castex Announces 6pm Curfew
The rumours have been rife, as always with the C-word, but following a meeting yesterday, 13th January, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced this evening, 14th January, details of the decisions made. Below is our summary.
Current situation
The situation remains worrying, even if it does seem to have stabilised.
On average, 16,000 new cases each day.
Yesterday there were 24,769 Covid-related hospitalisations, with 2711 in ICU.
Curfew
From Saturday 16th January, the current curfew of 8pm will be brought forward to 6pm across the whole of the country and will remain in place for at least 2 weeks.
Castex justified this nationwide curfew by confirming that although in December the increase in contaminations was localised, today o department has an incidence rate of less than 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
The reasons for breaking curfew remain the same (below), and require a completed attestation (online / paper)
- Work movements
- Urgent family matters
- Community actions (pre-authorised)
- Health reasons – hospitals, buy medication from the pharamacie de garde
- Pet needs
- Disabled people & support workers
Although today’s announcement was not a reconfinement, Castex confirmed that the government would not rule it out if the situation deteriorates.
Travel to France
From Monday 18th January, travellers entering France from outside the EU will required to provide proof of a negative test.
They will be required to self-isolate for 7 days and retest after the quarantine period.
Education
All schools, collèges and lycées will continue to work as they are currently.
Lycées will prioritise in-person learning for students in Terminale.
All indoor sports activities, whether during school time or extra-curricular, are suspended. Protocols for eating in the canteen will be reinforced, with students eating in the same place, with only their own class each day.
Universities will progressively reopen from the 25th January, starting with 1st year students in half groups and extending to other years if the situation allows.
Testing will be increased to 300 000 per week.
Vaccination
318,000 have already been vaccinated in France, 70,000 of them today;
People of all ages in high-risk groups, will be able to access the vaccine from Monday 18th January. They are asked to consult with their GP beforehand to discuss any contraindications.
More than 700 centres will be opened the same to day to respond to demand.
By the end of February, 2.5 million doses will be available, rising to 4 million if other types of vaccine are authorised.
If you are eligible, you can make an appointment for the vaccine in a number of ways:
- Call 0800 009 110, from 6am to 10pm everyday from tomorrow, Friday 15th January
- Online via the interactive map showing your nearest centre, available from 8am tomorrow
- Directly via your nearest centre
On the day of your vaccine, you will need to produce photo ID and your carte vitale.
Although the vaccine is an important step forward, it will not provide sufficient protection for another few months and so people are called upon to continue respecting the gestes barrières : hand washing, masks, social distancing;
Economy
All business forced to close will be able to access funds to cover up to 70% of their fixed costs.
Any state-guaranteed loan holders can delay repayments by up to 1 year, regardless of business size and sector.
Minister of Economy, Bruno le Maire, assured viewers that taxes will not go up, in fact the government pledges to continue reducing taxes as they have been doing over previous years.
Cultural centres (museums, art galleries, cinemas etc.) will remain closed.
The chômage partiel programme will continue as long as necessary with additional financial help for those in the wine industry, hit by the “unfair sanctions” imposed by America following the Airbus-Boeing conflict.
Looking forward
Castex said: “Access to vaccination allows us to hope for a gradual end to this crisis by summer. But the virus has not said its last word, and the coming weeks and months may lead us to maintain, or even reinforce, the measures to curb its spread”.
