the times | Thursday October 15 2020 2GM 11
News
Parisians and the residents of eight
other French cities must be home by
9pm or risk fines of €135 (£122) under a
curfew imposed by President Macron
to stem the pandemic.
The curfew, which will apply to 20
million people, comes into force this
weekend as Mr Macron tightens
restrictions after warnings that the
second wave could engulf hospitals.
The measure will bring nightlife to a
halt in Paris, and Mr Macron conceded
that it was likely to jar with young
people used to urban revelry. “It’s hard
to be 20 in 2020,” he said.
In an interview broadcast simultane-
ously on the country’s two main televi-
sion channels, he denied that the virus
was out of control but conceded: “We
are in a worrying situation. We are in
what has often been called the second
wave.”
Under the plan outlined by the presi-
dent, Paris, Grenoble, Lille, Lyons,
Marseilles, Saint-Étienne, Toulouse,
Montpellier and Rouen will all be
placed under curfew from 9pm to 6am.
Restaurants, theatres, cinemas, clubs
and other establishments will all have
to close when the curfew starts. Their
customers will have to rush home not to
be caught outdoors at 9pm.
People in the nine cities will only be
authorised to leave their homes if they
can prove that they need to do so for
work, or because they have an emer-
gency, such as going to hospital.
Anyone leaving home during the
curfew hours will need to fill in a form
explaining why they are out. The police
will be asked to control the curfew and
impose fines. Repeat offenders risk
fines of €1,500, Mr Macron said.
With France in a state of “sanitary
emergency”, the highest level of health
alert, for the first time since the spring,
the government has powers to impose
the curfew for four weeks.
But Mr Macron said that it planned
to legislate to extend the ban on going
He ruled out the closure of schools,
shops or other businesses, saying: “Our
objective is to continue to have an
economic life, to work, to go to schools,
and have a social life but to reduce it.”
The president also introduced aFrench version of the rule of six,
although without the force of the law
behind it. Mr Macron said he strongly
recommended that people avoided
gatherings of more than six people, but
would not force them to do so.out at night until December 1. “We
won’t be leaving restaurants after 9pm,”
Mr Macron said. “We won’t be partying
with friends because we know that
that’s where the contamination risk is
greatest.”Germans face tougher rules
on masks and socialising
David Crossland Berlin
Germans will face tighter rules on
mask-wearing, closing times and social
gatherings, Angela Merkel warned last
night after marathon talks with region-
al governors.
The meeting agreed to lower the crit-
ical threshold for introducing measures
such as compulsory mask-wearing in
busy public places to 35 new infections
per 100,000 inhabitants over a seven-
day period, from 50 previously. The
change will almost double the number
of people living in areas defined as
having a heightened risk to 26.6 million
from 13.6 million at present.
The chancellor admitted, however,
that the measures fell short of what she
had hoped to achieve in the first meet-
ing in the flesh with the 16 regional
leaders who hold major powers under
Germany’s federal system.
“We are in a serious phase of the pan-
demic,” she told a news conference after
the meeting. “I am convinced that what
we do or don’t do in the coming days
and weeks will be decisive for how we
get through the pandemic. The curves
of the infection numbers are pointed
upwards, quite steeply in some cases.
“We must prevent a further uncon-
trolled, exponential rise, we are already
in the exponential phase, that can be
seen in the daily numbers.”
Parts of the final communiqué issued
after the meeting with the regional
leaders read like an awkward compro-
mise, suggesting that disagreements
remained. It was not clear when meas-
ures such as an 11pm curfews for bars
and restaurants and a reduction in
social gatherings to ten people or two
households would come into effect.
The communiqué said further re-
strictions would be imposed if the in-
fection rates did not improve in the
next ten days. It urged people to refrain
from non-essential travel within Ger-
many to and from virus hotspots.
Earlier closing times have been intro-
duced in Berlin, Munich and Cologne
in recent days.
Mrs Merkel admitted that the talks
failed to resolve one of the most disput-
ed issues: a ban on German hotels
admitting travellers from high-risk dis-
tricts unless they can present a negative
coronavirus test no older than 48 hours.
The move agreed last week has
thrown the autumn school holiday
season into confusion for thousands of
travellers, and a number of regional
states have refused to implement them.
Talks on the travel ban have been
shelved until November 8, after the
school holidays.
Mrs Merkel praised Germans for
adhering to hygiene and distancing
rules that had helped them get through
the crisis better than many neighbour-
ing countries, adding: “This sticking to
the rules is crucial. We mustn’t surren-
der to the virus, we can fight this virus.”President Macron conceded that “it’s hard to be 20 in 2020” but stressed the importance of new restrictions in a TV interview
Wo r l d Coronavirus News
Macron puts cities under 9pm curfew
Adam Sage Paris
The managers of Paris hospitals said
that up to 90 per cent of the city’s inten-
sive care beds could be occupied by
Covid-19 patients within ten days.
The country has the third highest 14-
day infection rate in Europe, behind
Belgium and the Netherlands.
“We have on average 20,000 cases a
day,” the president said. “Our emer-
gency services and our intensive care
services are under a pressure that is not
tolerable.
“We must stop the spread of the virus
and the 20,000 new cases a day, we
must bring that down to 3,000 or 4,
because we can handle that.”
Mr Macron is said to be keen to avoid
the sort of nationwide lockdown
imposed this spring, but he warned his
compatriots that it remained an option
if the infection rate continued to rise.
“If we don’t want to have to take even
tougher measures in a few weeks time,
we are going to have to respect the
curfew,” he said.
Mr Macron acted after being advised
that a curfew introduced this summer
in the French overseas territory of
Guyana had been responsible for
reducing the infection rate from almost
500 cases per 100,000 people in July to
57 at the start of this month
In metropolitan France however, the
measures will bring back sinister
memories of the Nazis, who imposed a
curfew on swathes of the country
during the occupation, and of the
Algerian independence war, when
“Algerian Muslims” were banned from
going out at night in Paris.
They rebelled against the measure,
and the revolt was crushed by the police
with the loss of hundreds of lives.
Boris Vallaud, an opposition Socialist
MP, warned that the latest curfew could
also spark unrest. He predicted a “risk
of Jacquerie”, the 14th century peasant
revolt that shook France.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far
right National Rally, was also scathing.
“Restrictions, they are when you’ve got
everything wrong,” she said.
CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP/GETTY IMAGESits highest number of daily
coronavirus deaths — 243 — and
cases — 14,231 — this week. Health
officials said the situation was “tense”
but under control.
Meanwhile, Spartak Moscow
football club has been fined 300,
roubles (£3,000) after fans packed
terraces at a match. Under Russian
Covid laws clubs are allowed to fill up
to 50 per cent of seats at stadiums,
but are obliged to enforce social
distancing measures. The public
health watchdog said that Spartak
had made no effort to do so during its
October 3 game against Zenit St
Petersburg. Just over 20,000 fans
attended the match.
Critics said the fine was little more
than a symbolic slap on the wrist for
Spartak, which is sponsored by
Lukoil, one of Russia’s biggest oil
companies. Leonid Fedun, the club’s
chairman, was hospitalised in May
after contracting the virus.japan
Japanese researchers have found that
transparent plastic face shields are
ineffective at blocking droplets
compared with non-woven paper face
masks, letting in and out nearly 100
per cent of aerosol particles and half
of larger droplets. Almost no larger
droplets penetrated paper masks.canada
The province of Alberta, which has
one the country’s highest tallies of
Covid-19 infections and is running
one of its largest fiscal deficits,
announced that it was eliminating up
to 11,000 government health jobs to
save money.Belgium boosts
its capacity for
intensive care
russia
President Putin declared that the
government had officially registered a
second vaccine against coronavirus.
EpiVacCorona was developed at a
former Soviet bioweapons research
lab in Siberia. It has passed early
clinical trials and will be tested on
30,000 volunteers. Russia recordedbelgium
Hospitals have been ordered to set
aside a quarter of all critical care beds
for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.
The measure increases the country’s
capacity to 1,000 critical care places
for virus patients. At present they are
occupying 267 beds. Belgium is
recording an average of 5,057 new
cases a day and hospital admissions
have increased by 81 per cent.united states
Barron Trump, the president’s
14-year-old son, was diagnosed with
coronavirus, his mother revealed.
Melania Trump said that when she
and her husband tested positive for
the virus this month “naturally my
mind went immediately to our son”.
He initially tested negative but soon
afterwards “he was tested again and it
came up positive”, Mrs Trump said.
“Luckily he is a strong teenager and
exhibited no symptoms,” she added.
The first lady said that she and
Barron had both since tested negative
for the virus. America is grappling
with a new Covid-19 surge that the
authorities fear will overwhelm the
country’s hospitals. According to
Johns Hopkins University, more than
30 states reported more new
infections last week than during the
previous seven days.World update
1
23
4
5(^110) Reported new cases
46,
19,
14,
12,
29
Source: WHO
Countries with populations greater than 20 million
India 63,
US
UK
Russia
France
China
1 2 3 4 5 6
US
Brazil
India
Mexico
UK
Italy
213,
150,
110,
83,
43,
36,
1 2 3 4 5 6
Peru
Brazil
Spain
Mexico
US
UK
709
704
651
645
636
1,
Countries reporting most deaths
Deaths per million population
Global cases
38,002,
Global deaths
1,083,
Most new cases
Spain did
not report
cases
yesterday