PARIS (Reuters) – French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Tuesday that the time had come for additional coronavirus restrictions in the Paris metropolitan area as the country entered the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
France is struggling with a steady increase in new cases, leading to strong pressure on the hospital system, especially in the capital, where infections have increased.
French health officials reported 29,975 new cases across the country on Tuesday, a weekly jump of 4.5%, the highest in a month and a half.
“It seems to me that the time has come to consider new measures in the greater Paris region,” said Castex in an interview with TV BFM.
Castex said weekend blockades, like those already in place in two other regions, are among the measures to be considered for the greater Paris region at a meeting on Wednesday.
“There is no reason for us not to do what we do in another region in one region,” he said.
Like other EU countries, France lagged far behind the United States or Britain in vaccinating its population.
President Emmanuel Macron still hopes that a vaccination campaign can avoid the effects of a new pandemic wave triggered by more contagious variants and prevent France from resorting to a third national blockade.
But suspending the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, announced on Monday for security reasons, could undermine the strategy.
Castex said he was ready to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine if European health authorities confirm his safety.
The health ministry said there were 4,239 patients in intensive care units for COVID-19, an increase of 20 every 24 hours and setting a maximum of almost four months. The total number of people hospitalized for the disease was 25,492, an increase since February 24.
The number of people who died increased by 408 to 91,170.
Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten; additional reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Geert de Clercq, Peter Graff and David Gregorio