Parts of France are stalled amid confusion and frustration

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PARIS (Reuters) – Nearly a third of French people went into a month-long deadlock on Saturday, with many expressing fatigue and confusion over the latest set of restrictions aimed at containing the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus.

FILE PHOTO: Passengers board a TGV InOui high-speed train operated by the state-owned SNCF company at Montparnasse train station in Paris, before a third blockade imposed during a month on Paris and the northern parts, after the launch and spread of the vacancy of Highly Contagious Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in France, March 19, 2021. REUTERS / Gonzalo Fuentes

The government announced the new measures on Thursday, after a jump in the COVID-19 cases in Paris and parts of northern France.

The new restrictions are less severe than those during the spring and November 2020 blockades, raising concerns that they may not be effective.

“I hope it will end soon enough, although I have questions about how effective the measures are,” said Kasia Gluc, 57, a graphic editor on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

There was frustration among the so-called non-essential store owners forced to close.

Stores allowed to remain open include those that sell food, books, flowers and chocolate, as well as hairdressers and shoemakers, but not clothing, furniture and beauty stores, according to a list released Friday night.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who said a total of 90,000 stores will have to close, defended the list of stores that could remain open, especially those that sell chocolate and flowers just two weeks before Easter.

“I am not saying at all that this is ideal, but every time it is done with a simple logic: to guarantee the health of the French, while maintaining economic activity and shops as much as possible,” he told France Inter radio.

People can leave home whenever they want within 30 km (19 miles), under certain conditions, provided they complete a statement, the interior ministry said. Prime Minister Jean Castex referred to a 10 km radius on Thursday.

“We have to have a permit ticket, but compared to the previous blockades we are much freer to go out. So we’re locked up? Yes and no, “said Antonin Le Marechal, 21.

The government, which has avoided using the word blockade to describe the latest restrictions, says measures are needed to ease the pressure on intensive care units that are close to overflowing.

A large number of Parisians left the city before the restrictions came into force at midnight.

Report by Ardee Napolitano and Noemie Olivie, written by Sybille de La Hamaide, edited by Christina Fincher

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