French cities tighten virus lockdown as minister warns of extension
French cities on Friday tightened their enforcement of the country’s coronavirus lockdown as infections and deaths continued to climb.
The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, said he would be putting the famed Promenade des Anglais on the city’s Mediterranean seafront out of bounds.
“There is a lack of conscience that is frankly intolerable,” Estrosi told LCI television on the fourth day of a ban on all but essential outings across France.
Any other public places in the city “that we assess can end up as places for strolling about or meeting family members” would also be closed, he warned.
The number of new coronavirus cases in France has continued to mount sharply, and stood at 10,995 confirmed infections and 372 deaths as of Thursday afternoon.
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Paris police meanwhile warned they would be carrying out extra checks from Friday through the weekend at the city’s railway stations.
Anyone without a valid reason for their trip – such as essential work travel – would be fined 135 euros (144 dollars) and refused boarding.
Leaving the city for the weekend or on holiday was not permitted under the country’s coronavirus lockdown rules, police said.
Trying to head off to live under lockdown in another part of the country was also banned and could spread the virus, they wrote on Twitter.
Paris Mayor Anne Higaldo retweeted without comment a report by broadcaster BFMTV that the city would soon be closing its riverside paths as well as open spaces at the Invalides military hospital and behind the Eiffel Tower.
The nationwide lockdown, which President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday for a minimum of 15 days, would probably have to be extended, government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye said.
“The virus has a maximum incubation period of 14 days and we know that, looking at what has happened in other countries, that we will have begun to slow down the number of new cases,” Ndiaye told BFMTV television. “So this chain of transmission really has to be broken.”
In neighbouring Italy, at grips with Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has also warned of a likely extension of the country’s lockdown beyond the initial end date of April 3.
Ndiaye too warned that the crackdown on those violating the lockdown might have to be toughened.
“We get the impression that it will be necessary, at least, to toughen the application of penalties,” she said.
Defence Minister Florence Parly meanwhile announced that a navy helicopter carrier was on its way to the Mediterranean island of Corsica, one of the worst hit regions, to evacuate patients in intensive care to facilities on the mainland.
And she posted on Twitter a picture of a convoy of army trucks loaded with containers, which she said were heading to the hard-hit eastern city of Mulhouse to set up a field hospital. (dpa)
