Don’t plan a trip to France yet (April 1st 2021)

[Annie Sargent]

Here’s what President Macron announced last night [+ My comments]:

Starting Sat night all of France is limited to 10km around where we reside between 6 AM and 7 PM. There will be more enforcement of the rules. [Where I live there is ZERO enforcement currently. Every town in France has recreational areas where people are known to congregate. Local police know exactly where they are and should patrol them 24/7. It won’t stop every crowd of stupid people but it will stop many of them.] Businesses must allow for more remote work [But the government can’t force them to do that.]

Please don’t have family gatherings [They can’t enforce that. I will postpone the one gathering I was planning in late April.]

K-12 will go to remote school for 3 weeks BUT 2 weeks of that will be staycation time. [I predict lots of kids hanging around play areas and passing the bug around and mothers going nuts about what to do with their kids.] We should get a lot more doses of vaccines in April and May. Let’s continue to vaccinate as fast as possible. [That’s the only thing that will make a dent in this pandemic. We’re at 12% of the French population with 1 dose and 4% with 2 doses right now.]

We made mistakes but everybody did, we must hold a little longer. [Yeah, but even Russia and Cuba managed to produce a vaccine and France didn’t.]

[No mention of vaccination passports. No mention of re-opening to visitors. That’s MONTHS away.]

[Patricia Perry]

Update from new York Times 19may2021

France
State of the virus
France’s positivity rate and case numbers have dropped steadily over the past month, thanks to the country’s accelerating vaccination campaign and a national lockdown that was announced at the end of March. As of May 17, the seven-day average for daily new confirmed cases was just over 14,000, down from more than 45,000 one month earlier. The share of tests that are positive has similarly dropped from around 10 percent to 4.5 percent over the same period. And after a slow start, the pace of the vaccination campaign has recently picked up. As of May 17, nearly 31 percent of the French population had received at least one dose of vaccine, and 14 percent were fully vaccinated. Universal adult eligibility for vaccination will open up on June 15.
Entry requirements
President Emmanuel Macron has announced that, beginning June 9, visitors from outside Europe will once again be allowed entry into France, provided they carry a pass sanitaire (health pass), details of which have yet to be announced.
Medical facilities
Pressure on France’s health system has eased considerably, with the number of patients in the country’s intensive care units dropping from a high of more than 6,000 on April 26 to just over 4,000 on May 18. In a move that should appeal to tourists and public health officials alike, France will make PCR tests available to all visitors free of charge this summer, France’s foreign minister, Clément Beaune, recently told an interviewer. Anyone who tests positive should isolate and call a local doctor’s office if needed; for medical emergencies, dial 15.
Image
Restaurants just opened for outdoor dining in Paris and elsewhere in France, and people flocked to the tables despite chilly, rainy weather in much of the country.Credit…Joann Pai for The New York Times
Daily life
Nonessential stores are reopening, outdoor dining has started, and the national curfew has been pushed back from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Museums like the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay are also opening their doors, as are theaters, movie theaters and cultural sites across the country, including the Château de Versailles and the Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey. Disneyland Paris will reopen on June 17. The next easing of nationwide restrictions will come on June 9, when France’s curfew will be rolled back to 11 p.m., and limited indoor dining will be permitted. The last of the major restrictions will be lifted on June 30, when the curfew will be abolished and larger gatherings will be allowed, opening the door for the summer festival season. But even after all of the lockdown measures have been eased, visitors to France should expect to encounter mask requirements and social distancing measures, including limited capacity at museums, restaurants, stores and other establishments.
It’s been a long spring in France, and for many here, the annual grandes vacances can’t come soon enough. Restaurants just opened for outdoor dining, and people flocked to the tables, despite chilly, rainy weather in much of the country. But the prospect of summer vacations may be as important to the national economy as it is to the French spirit. The tourism industry accounts for nearly 8 percent of France’s gross domestic product and supports some two million jobs. “We need, we want, in good health conditions, to remain the top tourist destination in Europe and the world,” Mr. Beaune, the French official, said. “This is an economic issue for us.” Paige McClanahan

[Annie Sargent]

Excellent update, thank you Patricia!

[Author]

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