France lifts some restrictions despite still high number of cases

As promised, the government begins Wednesday, February 2 to lift restrictions related to Covid-19 to lighten the daily life of the French. France is taking over from other European countries such as England and Denmark, following a two-step schedule announced at the end of January.

From this Wednesday, wearing a mask is no longer compulsory outdoors, the gauges in places open to the seated public, in particular stadiums and cultural establishments, are abandoned and teleworking is no longer imposed, but only recommended. In two weeks, on February 16, the nightclubs, closed since December 10, will be able to reopen and standing concerts will again be authorized. Consumption at the counter will also be possible in bars. Just like consumption in stadiums, cinemas and transport.

The government has not made the lifting of these restrictions conditional on the evolution of the health situation. In the eyes of the authorities, the threat due to the Omicron variant is now limited since it is less dangerous than its predecessors, although much more contagious. On average over seven days, 322,256 cases have been recorded, according to the latest figures, compared to 366,179 a week ago. The number of patients in intensive care remained almost stable over a week, 3,751 on Tuesday against 3,741, and hospitalizations continue to increase.

“For the past few days, we have seen a still fragile reversal of the trend, with fewer cases declared each day than seven days earlier”, underlined Tuesday on France Info the spokesman of the government Gabriel Attal. One “very encouraging signal”, he estimated, inviting however to “to be careful”especially due to the subvariant of Omicron, “BA.2, very contagious” which seems to have delayed the peak of contamination in other countries.