Coronavirus covered France: authorities close bars and fitness rooms

If before Paris, I mean its inhabitants, had its own unique face, now, wherever you look, there are only masks. On the streets, in the subway and, of course, in all shops, museums and so on. Mostly surgical, disposable. But there are also multi-colored fabrics, which, after being washed, can be worn many times. The only exception to this rule is restaurants and bars, where it is allowed to sit at a table and lower the protective “veil”.

Apparently, this “liberty” will, by and large, be done away with. This is precisely the conclusion that can be drawn from the last statement of the Minister of Health Olivier Veran, stunned by Parisians. From his words, it is clear that COVID-19 is gaining strength again, and its second coming is a very real and close prospect. The number of infected is growing, going over 13 thousand cases detected daily, and in a number of large cities almost all “red” control figures have been reached or exceeded.

And among them was Paris with all the suburbs, the so-called “small crown” of the capital. Here, there are now 263 carriers per 100 thousand of the population, the share of intensive care beds occupied by seriously ill patients with this diagnosis has approached 35 percent (this is with an “alarming” indicator of 30 percent).

In this regard, the minister warned: if for For several days the situation will not change for the better, then the capital runs the risk of falling into the zone of the “maximum level of danger”, which means that Parisians will have to give up family holidays, parties with or without reason. Bars, gymnasiums will be closed, the fate of restaurants will also be in question.

By the way, not only in Paris, but in many other cities such as Lyon, Grenoble, Toulouse, where the situation is no better than the capital.

It is possible that such a course of events could cause even greater discontent in the country, as it happened in Marseille, and he, along with Aix-en-Provence, was the first to be among the “super dangerous” from the point of view of the central authorities. There, all restaurants and bars were closed by order for two weeks. Moreover, they did it without the consent of the municipality, thereby causing a wave of indignation. For example, the mayor of the city, Michel Rubirola, wrote on Twitter: “Nothing justifies such a decision. I am opposed to the inhabitants of Marseille becoming victims of political demarches that no one understands.” At the same time in the city itself, some refer to the fact that the head of the municipality, a representative of the party “Europe Ecology Greens”, in the summer local elections bypassed both the right-wing “republicans” and “marching” from the pro-presidential party.

The head of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, Renaud Musselier, spoke in about the same spirit, calling the dictatorship of Paris “collective punishment.” He even filed a lawsuit to cancel this measure, but his claim was rejected.

In Marseille itself, outraged owners and staff of restaurants, bars and other catering outlets staged a real opposition. At the call of their union leader Barnard Marty, they held a demonstration and even threatened to block the highways leading to this second largest metropolis in France.