BREAKING: Macron announces full lockdown in France for at least two weeks. No family or social gatherings allowed
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Macron also just announced a HUGE package to support French businesses: guaranteeing bank loans up to $300bn; companies rent and utility bills suspended. “No company, of any size, will be allowed to go bankrupt.” What every business owner, everywhere, wants to hear right now.
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All French companies that can organise for staff to work from home are ordered to do so. Only strictly necessary trips outside, eg shopping, will be permitted — along with trips to work when working from home is not possible
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Macron also announces special measures to look after healthcare workers dealing with the epidemic, including childcare. ‘Hotels and taxis could be mobilised to help them,’ he says. ‘The state will pay for this.’
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All French government reforms have been placed on hold, Macron says. Not an easy thing for a president who came to power promising wholesale change of French politics, but needs must. The second round of the municipal elections will be delayed
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Macron urges calm and solidarity. Now that he’s finished speaking, the government is due to set out details of how the French lockdown will work in practice. “Vive la République. Vive la France.”
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As in Italy, you will be allowed out to do ‘a bit of exercise’ under the new French restrictions, providing you stay away from other people. Which is very important for not going crazy.
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Latest French numbers: 148 deaths due to coronavirus, 21 of them in the last 24 hours. 6,633 confirmed cases. But bear in mind that only people with significant symptoms, notably breathing difficulties, are being tested.
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Macron’s announcements tonight may come across as rather severe, but actually the delivery was rather gentle. And most importantly, reassuring.
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100,000 police and gendarmes will be mobilised to enforce the French lockdown, interior minister Christophe Castaner says https://twitter.com/afpfr/status/1239661840394858496?s=21 …https://twitter.com/afpfr/status/1239661840394858496 …
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Breaches of the French lockdown will be punishable with fines of €38 which could go up to €135. Light, actually, compared to Italy, where the punishment can go up to a €206 and a 3-month jail sentence, or even a €600,000 (!) fine for serious lockdown breaches in Spain
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As in Italy, people in France will have to carry a form justifying all trips outside, including shopping, the pharmacy, and going for solo exercise (yes, you will have to run with your form). It will be downloadable here as of tomorrow: https://www.gouvernement.fr/info-coronavirus …
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I forsee huge, huge quantities of paper being used in the lockdown in France, a country that loves bureaucracy perhaps more than any other https://twitter.com/kjalee/status/1239671862159970305?s=21 …https://twitter.com/kjalee/status/1239671862159970305 …
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