“Otherwise, we only have to confine when the weather is not nice.
Look at the dike, it is drowned in the sun, it's nice.
Well, it's armored, of course.
It's party time for everyone.
For the Covid-19 too, probably… ”A burst of laughter and Emma lies down on her beach towel.
This Wednesday afternoon, the mercury is close to 20 ° C and a sun is flooding the pretty Dunkirk seafront.
The opportunity for onlookers come to bask by the hundreds to forget that at the same time, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran is in the city hospital, saturated, to announce a localized confinement of the agglomeration and Hauts-de-Flandre, more than 250,000 inhabitants, from this weekend.
Because in Dunkirk, the Covid-19 is blazing: the incidence rate is 901 per 100,000 inhabitants, or four times the national average!
Even more than in the Alpes-Maritimes, subjected since Monday to the same regime.
VIDEO. Covid-19: the Dunkirk agglomeration is reconfining itself on weekends, Véran announces
"40 km from here, the virus is no longer circulating?"
Lilou, high school student in Dunkirk
Sunglasses on the nose, but mask under the chin "to tan", Lilou and Loan, two high school girls, are not surprised.
“There is a relaxation of people.
In the street, as soon as there is a ray of sunshine, people gather and I hear about a lot of contamination around me, ”notes Lilou.
The fault, also, with "clandestine chapels"
(Editor's note: private aperitifs)
to compensate for the absence of the traditional Carnival, canceled?
“We hear that there are these clandestine chapels and carnivalists who would forget the barrier gestures.
It exists, but I don't believe that is what is causing such an outbreak of the epidemic, ”notes Loan.
However, among the measures announced by Véran, there is a ban on alcohol consumption in downtown Dunkirk.
So the prospect of being reconfigured, even for the weekend alone, lowers morale.
“In terms of health, we understand the idea: we must stop the virus, underline Loan and Lilou.
But why only Dunkirk?
40 km from here, the virus is no longer circulating?
"
"We haven't benefited from anything for a year"
Patricia, sixty-year-old from Saint-Pol-sur-Mer
Francine (left) and Patricia, here with their dogs Lady and Rocky, do not want to "put the table back".
LP / OC
Crossed in front of the Kursaal, the convention center transformed into a giant vaccination center, Monique and Sylvette, 67 and 75, do not want to “pay for others” either.
“Look at the world on the beach, Monique point.
Why not install a barrier with quick and mandatory saliva tests?
If it's positive, we go home!
"
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Not far from the city center of Dunkirk, at the foot of an HLM city of Saint-Pol-sur-Mer, the inhabitants are also concerned about the days to come.
Here, no beach on the horizon, no garden.
Francine and Patricia, two in their sixties, walk their two micro-dogs, Rocky and Lady.
"We, the old people, we take all our precautions, it's been a year that we do not benefit from anything, Patricia groans.
I live in a small apartment, if I didn't have my dog to go out, I would have fallen into depression at the first confinement.
So put the cover back ... No thank you!
"
"When do we live?"
Sandrine, shopkeeper in Calais
Christine (on the left) and Sandrine, two Calaisiennes, with little Juliette and Léonie.
LP / OC
Forty kilometers away, it's market day in Calais, the Pas-de-Calais sub-prefecture.
The contagion rate is lower there, as is the presence of the English variant.
But the outbreak that sets the neighbor Dunkirk ablaze "worried", assure Sandrine and Christine, who came to do their shopping with Juliette and Léonie, the granddaughters of the second.
“I don't see how the virus will stop at our doors.
I can't take it anymore: if we are confined at weekends like in Dunkirk, when do we live?
I am a shopkeeper, so I will be working from Monday to Friday, and I will be confined on weekends.
So no day to take care of me ”, annoys Sandrine.
"We respect everything: the masks, the curfew, so we do not want to be confined because of the sense of the party of our friends from Dunkirk", politely tackle Christine, who, if she does not want to "stigmatize »His neighbors,« does not see »any other explanation for the Covid which flies away.
"Local containment is a good thing"
Eric, pharmacist in Calais
Frequent trips between the United Kingdom and Pas-de-Calais are on everyone's mind.
LP / OC
"Above all, it would be necessary to
really
close the borders with England, where the English variant comes from", comments in turn an onlooker, referring to the port of the nearby city, where truckers and workers continue to hurry to get to the Kingdom. - United - or come back.
It was in Kent, the county where boats dock and where the Channel Tunnel arrival station is located, that "B 1.1.7" was detected for the first time.
Enough to fuel the discussions in Calais.
"I do not believe that this has to do with the outbreak of the epidemic," believes Eric, the pharmacist. In his pharmacy, more than fifty Covid-19 screenings are carried out per day, the majority on workers coming from England, or who are going there. “Almost all negative,” notes Eric. For him too, "local re-containment is a good thing, it helps save the economy where the virus circulates less". “But let's not be naive,” he adds. On the coast, we will all be entitled to it, a virus is like fire, it spreads if we do not put out the fire. "