France new lockdown today8/10/2023 Beneath the damaged, scaffold-clad hull of Notre-Dame, the waters of the Seine were calm and free of barges, a green lake. For eight weeks, the streets of Paris were empty of traffic and silent, the sidewalks desolate, all but essential food stores closed. Flights between Paris and the United States dropped to barely more than one a day. Its external borders and the borders of the other twenty-five countries in Europe’s Schengen Zone of visa-free travel also snapped shut. Just days before, France had closed its schools, restaurants, and cafés. Beginning at noon the following day, people could leave their homes only for urgent needs-to buy food, for medical appointments, to go to work if they couldn’t work remotely-and only with a permission slip. He declared a state of national emergency and said, six times, that France was “at war” against the coronavirus. On March 16 President Emmanuel Macron, the youngest head of state in French history since Napoleon, appeared on prime-time television to address the nation. Although the Omicron sub-variants prevalent in France are not as virulent as its predecessors Delta and Alpha, and a very large part of the population is now vaccinated (8 out of 10 French people have received at least two doses), the virus still kills.A man holding a painting of Didier Raoult, the French medical researcher promoting the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19, during a show of support for health care workers in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Mandé, May 2020 The elderly and immunocompromised on the front lineĬovid-19 has caused more than 6.8 million deaths worldwide according to the WHO, including 2.2 million in Europe and about 165,000 in France (with 40,000 deaths in 2022). However, these indicators – perhaps skewed by the easing of screening rules – are still "at low levels" said SPF. New hospitalizations are also increasing (8% compared to last week) with 336 new daily hospital admissions. More than 6,000 daily cases of Covid-19 are being detected, up from 3,500 just a few days ago. On its way to becoming the next dominant strain, this sub-variant seems to be at the root of pandemic growth observed in early March. It's a variant of Sars-CoV-2 that the World Health Organization (WHO) considers to be "the most contagious detected to date." However, available data "do not suggest that XBB.1.5 poses additional public health risks compared to other Omicron sublineages." "It's less severe but highly transmissible, and responds well to the vaccine with respect to protection against severe forms," summarized Antoine Flahaut. On the virological front, the Omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant is gaining ground. Three years after the lockdown, the country seems to have turned the page on a pandemic that caused the deaths of at least 165,000 people in France. Since then, two further less strict lockdowns have followed, along with nine waves, and 53 million French people vaccinated. The initial Covid-19 outbreak was progressing rapidly and worryingly, as Macron sounded a "general call to arms" against a virus described as an "invisible, elusive enemy." "We are at war," Emmanuel Macron declared in an address that has stuck in the minds of many. Only three years ago, on Tuesday, March 17, 2020, France was rocked by its first Covid-19 lockdown. Three years after the first lockdown, the pandemic has come to a lull, even as the disease continues to kill about 20 people a day.īy Assma Maad Published on March 20, 2023, at 3:07 pm (Paris), updated on March 21, 2023, at 3:04 pm Who is still dying of Covid-19 in France?
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