France has suggested extending a two-week lockdown to try to stem the spread of the coronavirus as the interior minister blasted “idiots” who flout home confinement rules and put others at risk, AFP reports.
President Emmanuel Macron has ordered French residents to stay at home except for essential excursions such as going to the doctor, walking the dog, or going for a solitary run, and banned any gatherings.
For a two-week period that began Tuesday, people can go to work only if their employer cannot make tele-commuting possible.
But news reports have shown groups of friends and families strolling in parks despite the clampdown, prompting calls from some officials for even stricter limits.
Many have been observed ignoring the one-metre (three feet) safe inter-personal distance in queues at the essential businesses that were allowed to stay open.
Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said people ignoring the measures were “idiots”.
“There are people who underestimate the risk… There are people who think they are modern-day heroes by breaking the rules while they are in fact idiots,” he told Europe 1 radio.
Macron on Thursday urged companies and workers to continue their activities “in compliance with the health safety rules”.
Genevieve Chene, who heads France’s public health agency, said between two and four weeks are needed for the outbreak to be adequately contained.
“Within two to three weeks we should be able to observe a slightly different dynamic” to the outbreak’s momentum, she told Franceinfo radio, and “a significant braking” within two to four weeks.
“It is likely that it is indeed necessary to extend (the containment measures) in order for the braking to be sufficient,” Chene said.
Meanwhile, the French government has started requisitioning hotel rooms for homeless people to occupy during the confinement period, Housing Minister Julien Denormandie announced.
More than 170 rooms will be made available in Paris by the end of the week, and the government has identified 80 sites elsewhere across the country to accomodate the country’s estimated 250,000 homeless people.
The number of confirmed cases in Germany has risen to 12,853, with the number of deaths reaching 34.
Politicians, police and prominent figures appealed to Germans to ‘stay at home’, or risk the introduction of curfews as in France, amid widespread evidence that many people are still not sufficiently reducing their movements to halt the spread of coronavirus.
The Robert Koch Institute, the leading public health body in Germany, has said it is planning to track mass amounts of mobile phone data, to establish whether Germans are reducing their movements enough.
Deutsche Telekom is giving it access to the anonymous data of millions of its customers. A data protection ombudsman has said the measures are acceptable, as long as the data remains anonymous. The move would usually raise the hackles of those who recall the mass surveillance of German citizens in the communist east by the state police, the Stasi, but in general it is being seen as an acceptable measure in desperate times.
Curfews could be imminent. Bavaria’s minister president, Markus Söder, said: “I understand that the isolation of many people is very difficult, but if you don’t restrict yourselves, there will be no other possibility. In Bavaria there are more than 1,700 confirmed infections and 14 people have died.
The mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller said he was appalled by the lack of consideration many Berliners were showing. “People do not understand. It is unacceptable that people are actually inviting each other to Corona parties. It is terrible!” he said.
He also condemned the extent to which people were stockpiling, saying there was no need to do so.
A curfew for the 3.6m Berliners could not be ruled out, he said. The German capital has 519 confirmed cases so far.
Guardian
