Weekends at home, far from the beach.
After the visit of the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, this Saturday and consultations with local elected officials, several towns on the coast of the Alpes-Maritimes will have to confine themselves on the weekends of February 27 and 28 as well as March 6 and 7 , announced the prefect of the department this Monday noon.
These weekend confinements will be put in place in Nice and in all the municipalities of the coastal urban area, from Menton to Théoule-sur-Mer, which encompasses nearly 90% of the population of the department.
"This partial confinement will take effect on Friday evening at 6 p.m. until Monday morning at 6 a.m.", indicated the prefect, who specifies that exits will be authorized for people with certificates and within the framework of derogatory measures, " under the same conditions as during the confinement in March ”.
Also, rules applicable to trade take effect on Tuesday, because trade is, according to the prefect, "the place where we have observed population regrouping" too important.
Thus, shops and shopping malls of more than 5000 m² are closed, with the exception of food shops and pharmacies.
All of these businesses are authorized to maintain
click and collect
and home delivery.
Massive deliveries of AstraZeneca to come in the department
"I have fully in mind that our fellow citizens are already tested by the restrictions", declared Bernard Gonzales, the prefect, who "decided to take several measures after extensive consultation", in particular with the medical profession and elected officials. of the department.
"The acceleration of the vaccine campaign is really necessary", indicated the prefect, who also specified that "massive deliveries of AstraZeneca vaccines" must be carried out by "thousands".
In addition to these re-adjustments, the prefecture announces the establishment of a tighter gauge in stores.
Wearing a mask is also becoming compulsory in all the Alpes-Maritimes.
The department has a significantly higher incidence rate than the French average, with around 600 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
It is even more important in the Nice metropolis, with more than 700 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants, more than three times the national average (190), while around 10% of screening tests are positive (against 6% for the whole of France), in a context of the spread of the British variant, which is more contagious.
"The epidemic situation in the department has deteriorated considerably," recalled Bernard Gonzales, the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes.
The latter reports a "very worrying situation", evidenced by the incidence rate, "the highest in metropolitan France" and describes hospital services "close to saturation".
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"The epidemic is out of control" in the department, "that means that the measures taken for a few weeks are not enough [...] if we want to avoid the overflow of hospitals", explained Saturday evening on BFMTV Rémi Salomon, president of the AP-HP medical commission.
"A default method"
This local reconfinement measure divides elected officials.
The LR mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, has spoken in favor of it on several occasions, because, according to him, the putting under cover on Saturdays and Sundays of the coastal municipalities, from Menton to Théoule-sur-Mer, can discourage the influx of tourists.
But the LR mayor of Antibes, Jean Leonetti, said he was "opposed to this confinement because it is a stopgap."
“It is a method by default, because we have not given the hospital resources and the means of vaccination.
If we vaccinated in a massive way, we would not need to do these "stop-and-go" and this permanence of confinements and deconfinements ", he lambasted with Europe 1.
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Covid-19: "The trend is not to loosen the constraint", recognizes Gabriel Attal
At the national level, "the trend is not good", admitted Gabriel Attal to the Grand Jury RTL - LCI - Le Figaro, using the words of Olivier Véran on Saturday in Nice.
More than 22,300 new cases of contamination were recorded on Saturday, after 24,100 the day before and 21,200 the previous Saturday, and hospital pressure remains at a high level.
"Unfortunately, the trend is not to loosen the constraint," added the government spokesperson, reiterating that the government's objective is, as much as possible, to avoid a third lockdown.
On Friday, the Elysee Palace said it would give itself 8 to 10 days to decide whether the current constraints should be relaxed or tightened, according to majority parliamentarians, who participated in a video conference with the Presidency of the Republic.
Gabriel Attal also defended the vaccine strategy, assuring that "France is the country of the EU in which there were the most" of first injections of the vaccine and that the forthcoming authorization of new vaccines could represent "a light to the end of the tunnel ”.
