France will strengthen border controls and bring forward its night curfew by two hours to 6 p.m. for at least a fortnight as it tries to slow the spread of coronavirus infections, the French government said on Thursday. A nighttime curfew running from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. was first introduced on Dec. 15, following a nationwide lockdown. Around two dozen of France's 95 départements — mainly in the east — have since been given stricter curfews starting at 6 p.m. This 12-hour curfew has now been extended to the whole country. France has the seventh-highest death toll in the world and the government is particularly worried by the more-transmissible coronavirus variant first detected in Britain, which now accounts for about 1 percent of new cases, according to Reuters. The revised curfew will come into effect on Saturday. From Monday, all people traveling to France from outside the European Union will have to show a negative COVID-19 test and self-isolate for a week upon arrival. A new protocol for EU countries will be worked on ahead of a European summit on Jan. 21, French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Thursday. Castex also said that "while the resumption of the epidemic was concentrated at the end of December in certain departments, viral circulation now concerns the entire country." He added that the average incidence rate across the country is now above 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Any public place receiving people will thus need to be closed at 6 p.m. at the latest, Castex said, and people outside their home past that time will need to justify their movement. The measure is "graduated and proportionate", Castex argued, as the current epidemiological situation "does not justify a new lockdown". He stressed however that a third national lockdown could be imposed if a "strong epidemic degradation" is observed. "Our situation is worrying even if it has generally stabilized," Castex continued, describing it also as "under control compared to what we see in our neighbors," but "fragile because the virus is still circulating actively on our territory". The country currently registers an average of 16,000 new infections every day. The pressure on hospitals "remains stable but is at a high level", Castex emphasized. There were 24,769 people hospitalized for COVID-19 across France on Wednesday, including 2,711 in intensive care. To prevent the spread of two variants identified in the UK and South Africa, which have been found to be more transmissible, the government also decided to "strongly tighten the conditions of entry on the national territory". Anyone from outside the European Union will need to show a negative test before traveling and will have to submit to a seven-day quarantine, at the end of which they will have to do a second test. For travelers from other EU member states, Castex said the government is working on a coordinated framework to be discussed at the European Council summit on Jan. 21. Additionally, the government said one million children and teachers will be tested monthly going forward to prevent the spread of the variants as children have been found to be more vulnerable to them. — Agencies
