(Paris) Get your health back before summer or have fun: Gyms, casinos, parks and spas will reopen on Wednesday thanks to a strong improvement in the face of the COVID-19 epidemic in France.
In a clear sign of this improvement, the European Parliament met on Monday at its headquarters in Strasbourg, for the first time in 15 months.
The curfew was postponed, and they celebrated until 11pm.
From Wednesday, the party can last until 11pm with the curfew extended by two hours. And if it rains, bars and restaurants will be able to welcome customers indoors, not just outdoors.
In Paris, the temporary stands that sprung up in the summer of 2020 at the end of the first wave of COVID-19 each year will be continued starting on 1he is April to October 31.
At the end of the 7-month famine, bodybuilding or Zumba sessions in gyms are also resumed and indoor swimming pools, spas and fairs reopen.
“Every machine had to be dusted off,” explains Jordan Bouvier, a graduate coach interviewed by AFP in Strasbourg in a Keep Cool room, happy to emerge from underemployment.
At the Thalassa Sea and Spa Center in Le Touquet, preparations were going well on Monday, before the arrival of fans of the sea-hot tubs, who “will have to keep their masks for treatment just like our teams,” according to venue manager Claire Bartholus.
Do not hug the mascot in Asterix
Parc Asterix will also reopen with a 65% scale, mandatory mask and earth markings, followed a week later by Disneyland Paris, Europe’s leading private tourist destination, where embracing of mascots will remain prohibited.
One of the first shows will be the annual Vivatech Technology Forum, which will take place from 16-19 June, with the condition of having a negative test or vaccination certificate.
Cultural spaces including museums will be able to increase visitor numbers to 65% of their capacity compared to 35% during the first phase, on May 19.
There is no PCR test for vaccinated tourists
This should motivate tourists who, from Wednesday, will be able to dispense with the PCR test to enter France, with a certificate of vaccination.
Wednesday will also mark the end of remote work and loneliness at the canteen table, as well as the resumption of drinks between colleagues while respecting barrier gestures.
This second stage was made possible thanks to the remarkable improvement in health conditions observed since the beginning of May, which, according to the government, was linked to the acceleration of vaccination.
All indicators are green, 1-week incidence is less than 100 (per 100,000 population), the situation continues to improve strongly across the country.
Health Minister Olivier Veran
At the height of the third wave, at the end of March, the infection rate exceeded the critical threshold of 600 in Ile-de-France and Hautes-de-France, and 57 French provinces were above the alert level of 250 cases per 100,000. population.
“The gradual dismantling – which began on May 19 with college students returning to school, and the reopening of bars, restaurants, cinemas, theaters and museums, has not broken this utopian dynamic,” he added.
“It is clear that this gradual dismantling is going well, we have a decrease of 20 to 25% of circulation of the virus every week and a daily rate of hospitalization at a level similar to the month of September,” before the second pandemic wave, the minister stressed.
No final victory before November
14,323 patients with Covid-19 virus were admitted to hospital on Monday evening compared to 16,596 on the previous Monday, including 2472 patients in critical care (2945 in the previous week), who are treating the most severe cases including patients in intensive care, while they were about 6000 at the peak the disease. The third wave.
According to Olivier Veran, France, where the epidemic has killed just over 110,000 people since March 2020, “it will drop to less than 5,000 (new daily) cases and then 2,000” but we will not “be sure of beating the virus” before November or December . , if a new wave does not appear.
Much will depend on the frequency of vaccination when a fifth of the population is fully immunized. The minister who received first called not to relax, and called on the French to vaccinate quickly, if possible before the summer holidays.