To curb the Covid-19 epidemic, which continues to break out in France, the government has decided to tighten the screw. Here are the announcements that were made this Wednesday, August 11, at the end of a Health Defense Council and a Council of Ministers.
A “strict” lockdown, which came into effect at the beginning of the week in Martinique, will be extended to Guadeloupe, said government spokesman Gabriel Attal, at the end of the two crisis meetings, chaired by videoconference from Emmanuel Macron of Fort Brégançon ( Var).
In particular, it imposes the closure of non-essential businesses, seasonal rentals, hotels and beaches, and invites tourists to leave the island.
In the morning, the Head of State described a “dramatic situation” in these two overseas departments where vaccination is three times less than in metropolitan France.
This situation offers “the cruel demonstration” that “vaccination is the most effective means” against the virus, he stressed.
According to Overseas Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who arrived in Guadeloupe this Tuesday night accompanied by a reinforcement of 274 caretakers and 60 firefighters, the West Indies show “incidence rates that we have never known” in France.
The President of the Republic insisted on “a very simple objective: the vaccination of all French people who can be vaccinated.”
“We must at least maintain the target of 50 million vaccinated by the end of August,” he continued, believing he was “on the right track”, since “37.8 million French” are already fully on it.
And to accelerate the pace of vaccination, all students over the age of 12 will be able to receive the precious serum from the start of the school year in the vaccination barns. They will be installed “near schools,” Gabriel Attal said.
The government spokesman also confirmed that non-prescription screening tests will be paid for from “mid-October.”