PARIS (AP) – French president says he has no reason to regret refusing to impose a third national blockade earlier this year, even as growing coronavirus infections affect his country’s hospitals and more than 1,000 people with the virus I die every week.
The government of President Emmanuel Macron has emphasized the importance of keeping children in school and in business as the pandemic spreads in a second year. The families of the French victims of COVID-19 say, however, that Macron has turned a blind eye to their suffering.
“We were right not to implement a blockade in France at the end of January, because we did not have the explosion of cases that each model predicted,” Macron said late Thursday at the end of a European Union summit. “It will not be my fault. I have no remorse and I do not admit failure. ”
For months, France has promoted a “third way” between closure and freedom, including national coverage and the closure of restaurants, museums, cinemas, gyms, many shopping malls and other companies. The measures kept France’s infection rate constant for a while, but rose significantly again this month.
France recorded the fourth highest number of confirmed virus cases and one of the largest pandemic outbreaks, with 93,378 people lost. Intensive care units are back to capacity or over capacity in Paris and other regions due to an influx of severely ill COVID-19 patients.
Many medical workers have called on the French government for weeks to impose stricter restrictions in response to the more contagious virus variant first identified in the UK, which is now the dominant form of the virus in France.
“There is no zero virus situation and this is true for every country in Europe. We are not an island and even the islands that have protected themselves have sometimes seen the virus return “, said Macron. “But I thought we could cope with the coverage and the measures we had.”
Relatives of people with COVID-19 who died went on social media to express their anger at Macron’s comments.
“I started listening to him and he started to irritate me and I had to change the channel,” said Lionel Petitpas, whose wife, Joelle, died last year.
“He is crazy. Macron, the prime minister, they always think they are making the right decision. As a citizen, I say no, because we are in exactly the same situation as a year ago,” Petitpas told the Associated Press. an association to allow families to mourn the victims of the virus together.
He acknowledged the challenges facing those who lost their jobs and livelihoods in the wake of the pandemic. But he asked, “What’s the point of an economy if there’s no one healthy enough to run it?”
While the government is determined to avoid a new blockade at the national level, Macron said tougher measures could be announced in the coming days. Last week, the government closed non-essential stores and imposed travel restrictions on residents of Paris and several other regions, but some doctors fear there will not be enough to slow the new outbreak.
“We have been at a 100% occupancy rate for almost a month. We have expanded our capabilities to the fullest, ”Dr. Mohamed El Hadi Djerad of the Pierre Beregovoy de Nevers Hospital in Burgundy told France-3 local broadcaster. “We are in a crisis situation.”
The infection rate in the Burgundy region has doubled in two weeks.