Coronavirus: partial lockdown in France from midday, mandatory certificate

In France, things are moving fast to curb the propagation of the coronavirus epidemic. The situation in Italy is worrisome and lately, the government has announced in a row: the ban of public gatherings of over 100 people, the shut down of non-necessary stores and the closure of schools – to name a few examples.

Despite these more and more drastic measures and the wide diffusion of health recommendations, we have to say that social distancing said to limit contagion risk is not always applied. In Paris and île-de-France, we could even see in parks, gardens and woods or even markets groups of people not respecting the 1-meter distance recommended by the public health.

Discover Christophe Castaner's clarifications following the French President's address:

Restez chez vous ! pic.twitter.com/oVcTDP8Xma

— Christophe Castaner (@CCastaner) March 16, 2020

Tweet reads: "Stay Home!"

In light of this, rules become harsher. The French government could consider a new and drastic measure: partial lockdown everywhere in France starting this Tuesday at noon. From now on, you'll be allowed to go out only for:

• Trips between the house and place of exercise of occupation, when they are vital to your occupation and that you are not able to work from home (by permanent certificate) or business trips that could not be adjourned;
  
  
• Trips to first-necessity shopping in authorized places (list on gouvernement.fr);
  
  
• Trips for health reasons;
  
  
• Trips for urgent family matter to aid vulnerable people or take care of children;
  
  
• Short trips close to your house, related to personal exercise excluding all collective sport sessions, to walk the dog

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From now on, friends or family reunions are banned. The aim is to really stop social interactions to stop the propagation of the virus. Each trip will imperatively have to be justified with the motive of the trip. For each trip, you'll have to download and fill in a certificate available this Tuesday at noon from the government website. The certificate can also be hand written. In case of breaking these regulations, people could be fined €38 and can increase to up to €135, the goal being to really limit trips to the bare minimum.

Derogatory trip certificate to download

To make sure these regulations are respected, "over 100,000 police officers" will be working on "fixed and mobile checkpoints on main and secondary roads".

The lack of awareness within the population could lead the government to sound the alarm and shore up rules. In hospital environment, the non-respect of the recommendations is worrying and let us forecast large contamination peaks that could be difficult to handle, leading to death that could be avoided. The current strategy is to control the epidemic as much as possible so that the number of cases stays pretty much manageable in hospitals.