The government unveiled this Thursday the plans for deconfinement, new travel conditions and a curfew from the 15th December
A new stage of deconfinement reviewed and corrected. From Tuesday, France will indeed enter a second phase of the process announced on October 24th by Emmanuel Macron, but with a tightened curfew.
While the number of coronavirus contaminations has stopped falling for a week and is even rising slightly, with 14,000 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours (against 12,000 last Thursday), Prime Minister Jean Castex confirmed this Thursday at a conference press that the target of 5,000 daily contaminations set by the President of the Republic could not be reached by December 15th.
“The game is far from being won”, “we are not out of the second wave”, he insisted to justify several adaptations of the strategy of progressive deconfinement announced by Emmanuel Macron. His “objective”: “to allow everyone to enjoy the end of year celebrations” but do everything “to reduce the risk of having to experience the third confinement in the coming months”. Certificates, exemptions… we take stock of the new curfew system which will come into force on Tuesday.
During the day, travel authorized throughout France
France will come out of confinement on December 15 and travel will again be authorized “everywhere in France”, as Emmanuel Macron announced at the end of October. The prime minister, however, called for not reducing teleworking when possible.
A hardened curfew in the evening
From Tuesday, confinement will be replaced by a more severe curfew than expected since it will start at 8 pm and not at 9 pm and will last until 6 am. It “will be strictly controlled with limited possibilities of exemption”, specified Jean Castex and Gérald Darmanin. The Minister of the Interior added in particular that the French will have to organize themselves to be back home by 8 pm.
A new certificate for exceptional travel
Gérald Darmanin mentioned five authorized reasons for waiving this curfew: the journey home / work when you work at night or in shifted hours (if the store in which you work closes at 8 pm, for example), a health reason ( such as going to the hospital or buying medicines from the on-call pharmacy), a pressing family reason (taking care of a sick relative or childcare), a mission of general interest (such as working for a association helping the underprivileged) and finally take out his pet near his home.
“Playing sports or going for a walk in the open air” will not be valid reasons after 8 p.m., specified the Minister, who indicated that in the event of an inspection, it will be necessary to be able to present a new certificate, which will soon be available (either in paper, or in digital format) as well as the documents justifying this trip, failing which the offender will incur a fixed fine of 135 euros.
An exception for Christmas and not the New Year
The only exception to this new curfew: travel will be authorized on Christmas Eve, the 24th December, said the head of government. On the other hand, this will not be possible on December 31st, the revellers being invited to “stay at home” within the limit also of “six adults”, because the New Year’s Eve “concentrates all the ingredients of an epidemic rebound”, according to Jean Castex.
