Emmanuel Macron orders third national lockdown amid COVID surge in France, schools closed

France on Wednesday ordered a third nationwide lockdown for a month, including in Paris amid recent surge of coronavirus cases. In a televised dress on March 31, French President announced immediate closure of all schools and non-essential businesses, issuing home confinement orders, extending previously enforced 7 pm curfew to tougher restrictions.  “We don’t have to lock ourselves in but we need to limit our contacts,” Macron told French population. “We tried to push back this day for as long as possible – but unfortunately it has now arrived,” he continued. “We will lose control if we do not act now,” Macron stressed. 

France’s lockdown across all of mainland and grounding of domestic air travel comes as country recorded 41,907 new cases of COVID-19,  and 303 new deaths on March 31, according to ministry of health data. In his televised speech Macron stated that rising trajectory of variant cases across several states in France was essentially “a new pandemic” within a pandemic. “No region in France is now spared, and 44 percent of intensive care patients are now under 65 years old, ” said French President. Reassuring French citizens that stringent measure was only way to protect younger healthier people from disease, France President said: “We must not give in to panic and denial. In order to continue to protect our way of life in present, we must each go extra mile for months to come. This is what I am asking of you collectively this evening to here.” 

Cases rising at 'exponential pace'

lockdown effective immediately on April 1 comes as new highly infectious SARS-CoV-2 variant third wave, as what is described worse than wave last year when France imposed its first lockdown, is hitting country. Last year on October 28, France h resorted to similar countrywide closure as French President Emmanuel Macron declared, “If we don’t put a brutal brake on transmissions today, our hospitals will be saturated,” as hospital missions pushed healthcare to brink of its maximum capacity. Only last week, French health experts and scientists h warned that France was “hitting wall” in being able to stem pandemic as country was registering 20,000 new Covid cases per day on a weekly average. cases have increased by 27 percent, rising at an exponential pace since last week.