The French government has decided to extend the state of health emergency until July 24 to fight against the corona virus pandemic, Minister of Health Olivier Vrran announced.
The state of health emergency, imposed since March 24, is to be extended because lifting it, as previously scheduled on May 23, “would be premature” as the risks of an epidemic resurgence are present, A news agency quoted the Minister as saying on Saturday.
A proposal to go before parliament from Monday says the lifting this month of the emergency, which began on March 24, would “be premature” and “could see a risk of the outbreak” intensifying.
The bill also lays out the quarantine conditions for people coming to France from abroad.
“We are going to have to live with the virus for a while,” Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said after a cabinet meeting.
A bill on the extension of the state of health emergency will be debated next week in the Senate before being sent to the National Assembly, said government spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye at the press conference.
Under the French law, a “state of health emergency” empowers the government to take special measures to restrict people’s freedom of movement and rule by decree to requisition certain goods and services to fight against a health disaster.
France, one of the European countries worst hit by the corona virus pandemic, has 168,518 cases, with 24,763 deaths.
