Travel Network

As the second wave of Coronavirus continues to hammer parts of the world, the French government have announced the capital is on maximum alert from Monday 5th October 2020. All bars and cafes in Paris will be shut for atleast 2 weeks to try and slow the rapid rise in new infections, hospitalisations and deaths in France.

Over the weekend France reported almost 17k infections on Saturday 3rd October and just under 13k on Sunday 4th October.

The bars and cafes in Paris have continued to ignore guidelines on social distancing and mask wearing and compounding the situation by attracting large crowds. French Health Minister Olivier Véran warned cafes & bars last week about the pending closure unless infection rates were drastically reduced.

Currently the loophole is any establishment that mainly serves food such as restaurants can continue to operate for now under stricter conditions. These new stricter guidelines include ensuring sanitising hand gel is available at all dining tables, limiting patrons to 6 a table with at least 1 metre between seats, and ensuring patrons to only remove their masks for eating.

Labour Minister Elisabeth Borne in a tweet also urged employers and workers in Paris and other zones on maximum alert “to work from home as much as possible to slow the spread of the virus”.

Paris et sa petite couronne passent ce soir en zone d’alerte maximale. Dans ces zones, j’invite les employeurs et les salariés à recourir autant que possible au télétravail pour ralentir la circulation du virus. #COVID19 https://t.co/0lNSbixrI8

— Elisabeth BORNE (@Elisabeth_Borne) October 4, 2020

While shutting cafes and bars will be tough on the public it seems the tough measures are what is needed to try and bring the transmissions rates down in Paris.