Things always come in threes? Confinement could be extended again in France. In people’s minds, May 11, 2020 was the beginning of deconfinement. Yet, since the date has been announced, the government has repeated several times it was not definitive. Secretary of the Interior Christophe Castaner affirmed it was a goal and not a certitude.
When presenting his deconfinement plan on April 28, 2020 to the National Assembly, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe also said that the upholding of the date announced as the start of deconfinement will be decided on May 7, 2020, saying that “if indicators are not there, we will not deconfine on May 11th”.
This Sunday May 3, 2020 new recall from the government warning the French as for slackening and not respecting confinement. In an interview for Le Parisien, Health Minister Olivier Véran says that if measures are respected to the end, “the lid would have been put over the epidemic saucepan” which would place the country in good conditions to exit containment.
Yet, he says that on the contrary, if there are too many new cases, “exiting containment could be questioned and depend on departments”. This reminded echoes the transmission rate, the R0, increased again. It is a measure representing the number of people infected by one person. When it is below 1, the epidemic is said to withdraw. With confinement, this rate moved from 3.3 to 0.5. Yet, it is said to have increased again, from 0.1 to 0.2 point. Let’s meet on Thursday May 7, 2020 for the final call.
