Emmanuel Macron could announce France’s second nationwide shutdown
TLTP
PARIS
French President Emmanuel Macron will give a televised address tonight where he is expected to announce new anti-virus measures. The government has been exploring bringing in a national lockdown from midnight on Thursday, a local TV reported.
It is understood the new lockdown could be slightly more flexible than the two-month shutdown that began in March, with schools remaining open even as restrictions on people’s movements become more severe. Other options could include confining people to their homes at weekends, closing non-essential shops and starting existing curfew measures earlier.
Mr Macron’s office declined to comment on whether he would announce a lockdown on Wednesday.
News of a possible French lockdown sent European stock markets tumbling, with the STOXX 600 falling to its lowest level since late-May. Mr Macron’s address comes after a government spokesman warned the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care was two weeks away from hitting the same level as the April peak without any new restrictions.
Speaking on a Radio programme, Sage member Professor Mark Walport said the number of people hospitalised with coronavirus in UK hospitals could more than double to 25,000 within weeks. He said: France, which has a very similar population to us, currently has about 16,000 people in hospital. It’s got 2,500 in intensive care beds compared with 852 here and roughly half the ICU beds in France are occupied. We’re seeing similar things in Spain.
Johnson is facing calls to push for standardised coronavirus restrictions across the UK in time for Christmas. Two minor parties, the Liberal Democrats and Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, said extensive travel between the UK’s four nations was “inevitable” over the festive season.
Germany, widely praised for keeping its infection rate well below other major powers during the first wave, now faces an “explosion” in cases. Economy minister Peter Altmaier said Germany was likely to reach 20,000 new infections a day by the end of the week.
The government has been keen to avoid a second national lockdown after an initial shutdown earlier this year hit economic growth hard.
But Merkel warned the country’s health system could hit breaking point if coronavirus infections continue to spiral. In Belgium, Europe’s worst coronavirus hotspot, hospital admissions soared to record levels overnight.
In Spain, hundreds of people protested in Barcelona against the state of emergency and nationwide curfew. Many of the demonstrators were calling for greater investment in public services as the country endures the second wave of the pandemic. The Spanish protests come after police in Italy used tear gas on protests as demonstrations turned violent on the first day of a night-time curfew.
