Health minister Olivier Véran at weekly press conference says IF Covid-19 situation in Paris doesn't improve over weekend the city could be placed on "maximum alert" and all bars and restaurants ordered to close as of Monday.
"We have to anticipate this possibility", Véran said.
The R-rate of contamination is 1.3, ie for every 10 people who are contaminated, they contaminate 13 (compare this with height of epidemic when the rate was 10 people contaminating 30 people) Véran says.
The Minister of Health points out that few French territories have escaped the the rapid circulation of the virus. Major cities are on heightened alert. Aix-en-Provence, Marseille and Grenoble are on high alert.
Two categories are most impacted by these contaminations, Véran says: the young and healthy, "who do not realise" because they have no symptoms or don't think they have symptoms and vulnerable people who are "seriously" affected.
Véran: Out of 10 patients in intensive care, 3 are less than 65 years old. He urged everyone to continue their efforts, masks, distancing, washing hands and above all "reducing the number of social contacts".
"We are in a "worsening phase", Véran said. The minister said studies showed that bars, gyms and sports halls were places of particular risk of contamination, whatever the efforts the owners made to reduce the risk.
Health minister Olivier Véran said the testing campaign was "unprecedented" and that 75% of test results were given in under 48 hours. Said authorities aiming to have test results delivered in 36 hours.
Working from home is "encouraged". In certain big cities virus evolving too quickly (Lille, Lyon, Grenoble, Toulouse, and Saint Etienne - described as "worrying").
Bordeaux, Nice and Marseille the virus has slowed down.
The situation in the Hauts -de-France region worrying.
Working from home is "encouraged" where possible.
For every ten people in intensive care with Covid-19, three are under 65 years old, Véran said.
That's the end of the press conference. Will post the daily figures when the websites are updated later this evening.
*under 65 years old
* The health authorities in France say 1.3 million PCR tests (nasal tests) are currently being carried out every week.
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