The French government gave itself two weeks to deliver the first conclusions of the new lockdown – started on October 30, 2020. But Olivier Véran sounded pretty much optimistic this Sunday November 8, as interviewed for Questions Politiques. France’s Health Minister said he noticed a “slight tremor” of the Covid-19 epidemic. He says measures made “enabled to get a form of decrease in the spread of the epidemic, but it is too early to assess the impact of the new lockdown”.
Especially as Santé Publique France was victim of a bug since October 28, blocking the report of new cases, explaining why there were 86,852 new cases on Saturday. On the micro, the minister promises “we’ll get consolidated data by the end of the week” enabling to assess the situation, before warning: “anyway, there will be an increase in hospitalizations and intensive cares in the next days since this is the reflection of the epidemic situation before the lockdown”.
During the show, the minister agreed “weariness is here, we must send signs to the French people” before speaking about “a new communication” to assess the effectiveness of the lockdown. He also reminded the importance of self-isolating when you are sick or a contact case. He also raises questions about implementing new measures to control people that would be placed safe in order to avoid a potentially contagious person gets out.
A new meeting is planned by mid-November, storekeepers are requiring to reopen (or at least ban the sale of non-necessary products on the Internet). As for the National Education Minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, he has already thought over the protocol for high schools, a protocol that was said impossible to implement by teachers as they call for a strike on Tuesday November 10.
