France”s latest measures to curb the spread of the new coronavirus “may not be enough,” according to the President of the French Society of Infectious Diseases, who believes the country will go into national lockdown very soon.
President Emmanuel Macron has been resisting putting that measure in place. Instead, borders have closed to countries outside the European Union and those entering France from the EU now need a negative PCR test.
The night curfew is also being more strongly enforced and large shopping centers have had to close.
The measures have been seen as mild in a week in which the government appeared to be preparing to issue new stay-at-home orders.
“There is a very limited chance that this will be enough,” Pierre Tattevin, who is also the head of the Infectious diseases department at Rennes University Hospital told Euronews.
“We will probably have to go into a lockdown in the coming days, it’s almost inevitable.”
Tattevin fears it may be too late if we lockdown in two or three weeks, “we really think Macron will decide to go into lockdown this weekend.
Of the border closures, Tattevin says they may help, as “for the moment France is among the countries with the lowest proportion of the new variant, but it may not be enough.”
“The lockdown will be appropriate very soon, except if the numbers decrease in the next few days, but it’s very unlikely.”