The mayor (PS) of Nantes, Johanna Rolland, president of France Urbaine, an association which brings together almost all large cities and French metropolises, welcomed on Friday October 9 the "
constructive
"
dialogue
conducted with Matignon to curb the epidemic of Covid-19, but still requires effort.
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"
There is dialogue in this new stage
" affirmed to AFP Johanna Rolland, the day after the announcement by the Minister of Health Olivier Véran that the cities of Lille, Lyon, Grenoble and Saint-Etienne will pass from Saturday in the maximum alert zone due to the deterioration of health indicators.
"
Obviously, there have been misses in the previous sequences,
" she admitted, referring to the measures taken for Marseille.
"
But I note that we had a constructive meeting
" with Prime Minister Jean Castex during a videoconference Tuesday with France Urbaine, she assured.
Additional effort needed
The mayor of Nantes, however, admitted that additional efforts were necessary and stressed that the dialogue between the prefect, the mayor and the Regional Health Agency (ARS) to deal with the epidemic "
works well in some cases
" but "
that in others it is very far from being the case
”.
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Johanna Rolland, elected president of France Urbaine on September 24th, insisted on the need to “
share information
” with cities before announcing new restrictions.
"
It is the mayors who then do a large part of the work, who are on the ground, who are challenged by the inhabitants, who receive associations of local traders, bars and restaurants,
" she recalled.
During the videoconference on Tuesday, France Urbaine made proposals to Jean Castex to fight against the epidemic.
Among them, the suspension of the waiting day for officials or that the gauge for large gatherings is based on the available m2 and not on the crowds limited to 1000 people who do not take into account the space available.
Regarding the method, “
we asked Jean Castex for shared and stabilized indicators (...).
Today, for example, we do not have the incidence rate for people over 65 at the metropolitan level
, ”she said.