Coronavirus Cases Surge in France, Additional Restrictions Announced

Bars in Paris were forced to close on Tuesday, October 6, after the capital saw a continued uptick in COVID-19 infections.

According to French health authorities, Friday saw 62 coronavirus-related deaths and 20,339 recorded new cases of coronavirus in 24 hours, up from an all time high of 18,746 new cases on Tuesday.

The move to shut down Parisian bars came after the same measure was taken in the heavily affected Marseille area. Though bars have been emptied, hospitals continue to fill up.

Indeed, the number of COVID-19 cases have been rising steadily since the lockdown ended more than three months ago.

According to the Associated Press, COVID-19 patients occupy 40% of the Intensive Care Unit beds in Paris and its surrounding suburbs.

Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron said during an interview, according to Mercury News, “In places where the disease is circulating too quickly … there will be new restrictions.”

Since then, Health Minister Olivier Veran announced that Lille, Grenoble, Lyon and Saint-Etienne will be placed under maximum virus alert starting on Saturday. Veran stated, the virus “keeps deteriorating in France unfortunately” with “more and more people infected” and “more and more people who are getting sick,” according to the AP.

On Thursday, the director of the Paris region’s health agency, Aurelien Rousseau, tweeted that he ordered hospital directors to activate a special emergency plan to free up resources and protect medical staff.

Since the epidemic started, the new cases recorded as of Thursday bring the number of infections to more than 672,000 and French territories are experiencing constantly increasing numbers of daily infections. The number of people hospitalized in France is at an three-month high of 7,624, according to Reuters. However, the number of hospitalized patients is lower than the April 14 peak of 32,292