This Thursday, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced a new lockdown for the next four weeks for 16 French departments, including the Île-de-France region and the Alpes-Maritimes. He also announced the resumption of the AstraZeneca vaccine distribution, a few days after its temporary suspension due to suspicious effects. Here’s the Covid update…
The verdict has been delivered. As part of the fight against the spread of the coronavirus, a lockdown will be enforced in 16 departments of France, particularly in the Île-de-France region, Hauts-de-France, and Alpes-Maritimes, starting from midnight on Friday. This means the return of the exceptional travel certificate with some exceptions. Exits will be allowed within a 10 km radius without a time limit. Schools (kindergarten, primary, middle school) will remain open to ensure children’s education. Nothing changes for them except that high school students will need to be divided into half-groups. Higher education institutions will also remain open.
Inter-region travel will be prohibited for residents of the affected departments. Additionally, Jean Castex announced the postponement of the curfew to 7 PM instead of 6 PM, in anticipation of the switch to summertime. Finally, the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine will officially resume from this Friday.
Covid figures in France and worldwide
Globally, there have been 120,268,427 confirmed cases since December 2019, including 24,175,984 in European Union countries. 2,659,802 deaths have been recorded, including 577,310 in the EU.
In the last 24 hours, health authorities have recorded 34,998 new Covid-19 cases and 274 deaths in France, according to the latest information provided by the Public Health Agency of France.
The total tally now stands at 4,181,607 confirmed cases and 91,706 deaths (including 66,301 in hospitals) since the beginning of the health crisis.
The test positivity rate has slightly increased compared to the previous year: 7.7% (versus 7.5%). As of March 17, 5,630,671 people have received at least one vaccine dose across the national territory.
10,241 new hospitalizations and 2,259 admissions to intensive care have been recorded over the past seven days.
In the PACA region
In the PACA region, 1,448 people are hospitalized (+9), 504 people are in intensive care (-7), and 6,319 people have died in hospitals since the start of the crisis (+28).
In the Alpes-Maritimes, 344 people are hospitalized (-18), 128 people are in intensive care (-2), and 1,229 people have died in hospitals since the beginning of the pandemic (+9).
As of March 15, 443,800 people have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine in the PACA region. 190,154 have received both doses. Overall, more than 37% of the population aged 75 and over in the region has received one vaccine dose. More than 19% have received both doses. Notably, over 20,000 vaccine doses were administered over the weekend thanks to significant mobilization by many actors and volunteers in the vaccination effort to combat the pandemic.
