If some believe they can escape confinement to go on Easter vacation, the Minister of the Interior has recalled the rules. Checks will be strengthened.
This may seem obvious in this period of confinement. However, the government needed to remind us, Wednesday 1st April 2020: “No, we don’t go on vacation during the confinement period”.
This sentence, hammered on Wednesday first by the Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner then by the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, does not intervene by chance.
The Easter holidays in zone C start on Saturday 4th April (academies of Créteil, Montpellier, Paris, Toulouse, Versailles).
Followed by those of zone B on April 11th (academies of Aix-Marseille, Amiens, Caen, Lille, Nancy-Metz, Nantes, Nice, Orléans-Tours, Reims, Rennes, Rouen, Strasbourg).
Then those in zone A on April 18th (academies of Besançon, Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon, Grenoble, Limoges, Lyon, Poitiers).
“We have to stay confined”
The Minister of the Interior reminded LCI that during the extended confinement period of 15 days, “we must remain confined”.
Christophe Castaner wanted to call “those who have planned to travel for the holidays to realize that, at the same time, they expose themselves and they expose their loved ones”, but also the territory in which they go.
#COVID19 | Non, on ne part pas en vacances pendant la période de confinement : c’est mettre en danger ses proches et nos concitoyens.
Forces de @PoliceNationale & @Gendarmerie seront mobilisées pour faire respecter les préconisations sanitaires.
Tout contrevenant sera sanctionné. pic.twitter.com/nAqiaKm6ev— Christophe Castaner (@CCastaner) April 1, 2020
Reinforcement of police checks
To ensure proper compliance with the rules, whose offences represent 359,000 fines, the Minister asked the prefects “tourist areas to check the level of rental and occupancy of AirBnB or other rental offers”.
“Very strict” police checks will also be carried out from major cities “to avoid there being as if nothing had happened, flows of holidaymakers who go on vacation”.
Read also: Coronavirus: in the event of a repeat breach of confinement, you risk a 200 euro fine
In Les Sables d’Olonne (Vendée), measures have already been taken to enforce the prefectural decree issued to this effect. Or in New Aquitaine, where the regional prefect Fabienne Buccio indicated that there will be “increased surveillance on transport”.
When the confinement was announced in mid-March, many people had left the cities, especially in Paris, to go to the regions, with the family or in second homes. A decision very criticized by the inhabitants of the destinations which received these new audiences, as in Belle-Ile-en-Mer or on the other islands of Morbihan.
