France will not begin to lift its lockdown against the Covid-19 pandemic until May 11th, President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday night.
“The epidemic is not yet under control,” Mr Macron said. “We will have to live with the virus for several more months.”
France has reported 132,591 cases of Covid-19. About 14,400 French people have died from the disease.
Crèches, primary and secondary schools will begin reopening on May 11th, Mr Macron said. University courses will not resume before summer. No summer festivals may be held before mid-July, at the earliest. All places of public gathering will remain closed until further notice.
French borders will remain closed for the indefinite future.
The French president said that from May 11th, all people who show symptoms of Covid-19 will be tested. The announcement fell short of a general testing programme which some experts say is necessary to identify carriers of the virus who show no symptoms.
From May 11th, members of the public should be able to obtain surgical masks, which may become mandatory is some places, such as public transport.
Mr Macron continued to compare the epidemic to a war, as he has in earlier speeches. He again thanked medical personnel “in the front line”.
The beginning of his speech was postponed for several minutes while French people applauded healthcare workers from their windows, as they do every evening.
Mr Macron praised the people who are enabling France to live under lockdown, including farmers, lorry drivers, deliverymen, cashiers and rubbish collectors. “Our country is holding together thanks to men and women who receive too little pay or recognition,” he said.
Criticism
Mr Macron addressed the severe criticism that has been levelled at his administration. “Were we prepared enough for this crisis?” he asked. “Obviously not. But we faced up to it. In France, as everywhere else, we had to act urgently, take difficult decisions based on incomplete and often changing information, adapt constantly. This virus was unknown and still today holds many mysteries.”
Like other countries, Mr Macron continued, France lacked surgical smocks, latex gloves and disinfectant gel. “We were not able to distribute as many masks as we wanted to healthcare workers,” he admitted. “I fully understand that when you’re on the frontline it is hard to understand that a worldwide shortage is preventing deliveries.”
Within three weeks, France will quintuple its production of surgical masks, and manufacture 10,000 ventilators, Mr Macron promised. Failings will be addressed “in due course”, he added.
The French president also wanted successes to be recognised, including doubling the number of beds in intensive care units, “unprecedented co-operation” between public and private hospitals and the transfer of patients to less affected regions and neighbouring countries.
“But nothing is definitively won,” Mr Macron admitted. In eastern France and the Paris region, “hospital services are saturated. The epidemic is not under control. We must continue our efforts and apply the rules. The more they are respected, the more lives we will save.”
Prolonging the lockdown until May 11th was “essential to slow the propagation of the virus even more, to have enough ICU beds and to enable healthcare workers to regain their strength”.
Even then, Mr Macron warned “May 11th will only be possible if we continue to show civic sense and responsibility”.
Mr Macron said he would ask hospitals and nursing homes to make it possible for those who are dying to see loved ones a last time.
Government funds
More than eight million French workers are receiving government funds under measures put in place to ease effects of the epidemic. Mr Macron said he will ask this week’s cabinet meeting to increase assistance further.
Other EU countries are easing their lockdowns more rapidly than France. Part of the Spanish workforce returned to work on Monday. Italian bookshops and children's clothing stories will reopen on Tuesday, though the lockdown has been extended until May 3rd. Germany, which is widely praised for limiting fatalities, has not yet decided when to lift its lockdown, originally scheduled until April 19th.
Some Asian countries lifted lockdowns to find that “the virus which they thought they had conquered returned, and they had to shut down their economies again”, Mr Macron said.
