PARIS: Hundreds of thousands of people in northern France went back into lockdown Saturday, while health officials stepped up a nationwide vaccination campaign to make up ground after a slow start.
Paris police meanwhile moved in to clear people off the banks of the Seine after crowds ignored social distancing guidelines to make the most of a sunny spring day.
Residents of Pas-de-Calais on the north coast joined those in the region’s port of Dunkirk — and the Mediterranean resort of Nice — which are already on shutdowns on Saturdays and Sundays.
That puts more than two million people across France under the weekend restrictions, required to stay at home unless they can provide a written exemption.
With hospital capacity at 90 percent in Pas-de-Calais, the region’s top official insisted the new restrictions were necessary to prevent local health services from being overwhelmed.
Two thirds of the cases recorded there recently have been the more contagious variant first detected in England, local officials said.
But with a 6:00 pm-6:00 am curfew already in place and non-essential shops closed, the new restrictions will further hit already hard-pressed businesses.
Covid-19 has killed 88,300 people across France, according to the latest figures Saturday. The government is trying to step up its vaccination campaign to give a first jab to 10 million people by mid-April, 20 million by mid-May and 30 million by summer.
So far however, fewer than 3.4 million people in France have received at least one dose of the vaccine — compared with more than 22 million in Britain.
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