PARIS (Reuters) – French police cleared the banks of the Seine River in central Paris on Saturday over concerns that people were getting too close and not respecting the rules of social distancing from the coronavirus.
Hundreds of people were asked to leave the area, popular for walking and picnicking on sunny days, and police officers closed the riverbanks the rest of the day.
“Social distancing rules are not being respected,” police shouted through a megaphone.
Police have been cleaning the area regularly for the past few weeks with warmer weather that has led people to take advantage of the sun before a curfew starts from 6pm to 6am.
On Friday, Paris police banned alcohol consumption by the river and asked people to limit their meetings.
The government has resisted closing the capital and its environs again despite the increase in coronavirus cases and the growing number of patients in the capital’s intensive care units.
The country reported 23,306 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, slightly less than the 23,507 on Friday. There were 170 new deaths, reaching 88,444.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Jean Castex pledged to speed up the deployment of the vaccine, including on weekends, in two dozen high-risk areas to avoid further restrictions following criticism over the country’s slow progress in vaccination .
“This Saturday, at 5.30 pm, 220,000 French people have been vaccinated, more than twice as many as last Saturday. We continue tomorrow “, said the Minister of Health, Oliver Veran, on Twitter.
Since Saturday, 3,581 million people have received a first hit in France.
Report by Michel Rose; Written by John Irish; Edited by Frances Kerry and Christina Fincher