Families can celebrate holiday but with limits

PARIS • France is set to lift a six-week-long coronavirus lockdown as expected on Tuesday, but will impose a curfew from 8pm, including on New Year's Eve, as the number of cases creeps up again.

Prime Minister Jean Castex ended days of speculation over the year-end holidays by confirming on Thursday that families would be allowed to travel to celebrate Christmas together.

But he said museums, theatres and cinemas, which had been hoping to try to recoup some of their losses over the holidays, would remain closed for an extra three weeks, as will football stadiums.

Mr Castex said the situation had "considerably improved" since France entered a second lockdown on Oct 30, noting that the number of new infections had fallen from nearly 50,000 a day in late October to around 10,000.

But the fall "has slowed over the past several days", he said.

"We're on a sort of plateau," Mr Castex said, warning that if the French dropped their guard, they could face a third lockdown.

The curfew to take effect on Tuesday will be from 8pm to 6am, with the exception of Dec 24, when families can celebrate Christmas, but with no more than six adults per household. The government is maintaining its target for reopening bars and restaurants on Jan 20.

Health Minister Olivier Veran admitted that France would fall far short of its goal of a maximum 5,000 new cases per day by Tuesday, when the lockdown ends.

On Thursday, the country recorded nearly 14,000 cases over the previous 24 hours, compared with 12,000 a week earlier.

President Emmanuel Macron had initially conditioned lifting the lockdown on the 5,000-case level being met, but revised his stance to afford the French some relief after weeks of seclusion. The restrictions were partly eased on Nov 28, when businesses selling "non-essential" goods and services, such as bookshops and hairdressers, were allowed to reopen.

The total death toll in France stands at over 55,000.

Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot pledged an extra €35 million (S$56.7 million) yesterday to bail out museums, cinemas and theatres left "stunned" by the extension of the restrictions.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG, REUTERS