PARIS (Reuters) – Nearly a third of French people entered on Saturday for a month during which many expressed tiredness and confusion over the latest set of restrictions aimed at containing the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus.
The government on Thursday announced new measures after a jump in COVID-19 cases in Paris and parts of northern France.
The new restrictions are less severe than those in place during the spring and November 2020 closures, which worries that they will not be effective.
“I expect it to end fairly quickly, although I have questions about the effectiveness of the measures,” said Kasia Gluc, 57, a graphic editor on the Avenue des Champs Elysées in Paris.
There was frustration among so-called non-essential store owners forced to close.
Stores that can be kept open include food, books, flowers and chocolate, as well as hairdressers and shoemakers, but not clothing, furniture and beauty shops, according to a list released Friday evening.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who said they should close a total of 90,000 stores, defended the list of stores that could remain open, especially those that sell chocolate and flowers just two weeks before Easter.
“I’m not saying at all that this is the ideal, but every time it’s done with a simple logic: to ensure the health of the French, while preserving as much economic activity and shops as possible,” he told France Inter radio.
People can leave the house as many times as they want within 30 km (19 miles), under certain conditions, as long as they fill out a statement, the Interior Ministry said. Prime Minister Jean Castex on Thursday had only referred to a 10km radius.
“We have to have a permit sheet, but compared to the previous blockades, we still have a lot more freedom to get out. So are we closed? Yes and no,” said Antonin Le Marechal, 21.
The government, which has avoided using the word blockade to describe the latest restrictions, argues that measures are needed to ease the pressure on intensive care units that are about to overflow.
A large number of Parisians left the city before the restrictions came into force at midnight.
Report by Ardee Napolitano and Noemie Olivie, written by Sybille de La Hamaide, edited by Christina Fincher