Is Île-de-France headed towards hybrid lockdown to fight against Covid more effectively? This is what Emmanuel Macron seems to be considering as he raised the idea this Wednesday March 17 while hosting a video conference with several regional mayors, stating he wishes to make “curbing measures that are nothing we have seen before”, as reported by France Bleu that collected a recording of the meeting.
A lockdown that would be very different from those already instated at weekends in some French departments. And for good reason, the French President intends to “take realities of the Île-de-France life and time management into account”, different from other regions (schedules, commute time, and so on), by instating “more working from home in the week, less flow, but oxygenation at weekends”, for instance. He adds that Île-de-France inhabitants “cannot be placed in lockdown from Friday evening to Sunday evening, because it is a life that is impossible”.
The question remains open: “we are thinking in the coming hours about new fitted measures to give deadline”, he explained to elected mayors, adding the idea is “to get the most fitted and proportionate response, that should be intelligible by our fellow citizens”. He also addressed “young’s weariness in popular districts, the necessity to keep on working out, and the issue or open air”: “we yet learned one thing since the first lockdown, it is that being outside is rather good, if we do no throw major parties. We are more likely to be contaminated in closed places when we are eating, drinking, speaking while our masks are off, singing. But once outside, and we can keep social distancing, there are fewer risks”.
Macron also shared concerns about “resistance to curfew at the time of putting the clocks forward, especially in metropolises”. Decisions will be made – if not already – and announced this Thursday March 18 at 7 p.m. for Jean Castex and Olivier Véran’s press brief on the epidemic situation.
