France mulls third lockdown despite population “can’t take it any more”

The French Government has not closed the door to a third lockdown, despite risks from a population wearied by successive restrictions, after conceding a nightly curfew was failing to suppress the spread of the virus.

In comments after today’s Cabinet meeting, Government spokesperson Gabriel Attal admitted that “the 6pm curfew has been relatively ineffective. We have data to show that … at this stage, it does not sufficiently slow down the circulation of the virus”. Faced with this situation, the scenarios under consideration range “from maintaining the current framework to a very tight containment”, he added.

This adds to comments by Health Minister Olivier Véran swho stressed the need to “avoid a pandemic within the pandemic”. He said that the virus is circulating more widely and is “spreading faster every week”. The effectiveness of the curfew, he added, is now “waning”.

Meanwhile, the hashtag “#JeNeMeReconfineraiPas” (#I will not go back into lockdown) appeared on Twitter, where it went viral with more than 40,000 shares. Some of the posts even invited civil disobedience.

via France 24