Covid-19: discos will remain closed until January 24

The nightclubs, which were closed for one month in early December to deal with the health situation, will remain closed for three additional weeks in January, said the Minister Delegate in charge of Tourism and SMEs, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, on Wednesday.

"On January 3, like the other sectors which were announced by the Prime Minister, for three weeks there will be the renewal of the closure which concerned them", announced Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne on France Inter, finally removing the doubt that persisted.

If the date was induced by the announcements of Jean Castex Monday evening, it had not been specified.

. @ JBLemoyne: "The nightclubs will be closed for three weeks on January 3" # le69Inter pic.twitter.com/QJxDBTCzpk

- France Inter (@franceinter) December 29, 2021

“At the beginning of December, the situation was much better today.

We are at an incidence rate of 730, we are with 180,000 cases of Omicron identified yesterday ", justified the Minister.

Risk of contamination increased tenfold

Tired of stringing closures, the owners of nightclubs had challenged the closing decision in court. Three days before Christmas, the Council of State had rejected the appeal of the National Union of Discotheques and Leisure Places (SNDLL), considering it justified in view of a "clear deterioration" of the health situation and "risks of contamination. inherent "to dance in closed spaces" including close physical contact in a festive atmosphere ".

A study by the Institut Pasteur that we unveiled at the beginning of December recalled the risk of contamination increased tenfold inside these establishments: a person over 40 years old who goes to a club has a 270% more chance than another of see infected.

This "excess risk" even climbs to 790% among those under 40, over the study period.

And that was before the Omicron variant.