Recently, Prime Minister of France Jean Castex announced nightclubs across the country will be closed to combat rising cases of COVID-19. The closure will last for four weeks minimum.
The only other significant order coming as a result of the spike in cases pertains to students. School children will have stricter social distancing standards and extended use of facemasks as the cases are mostly climbing among young people.
Few other restrictions will be put in place because of the high vaccination rate among the French population. At this point, nearly 90 percent of the eligible French population is vaccinated. Children 5-12 could be also cleared for vaccination soon, and citizens over 65 will no longer need appointments for boosters.
There will be no lockdowns for the general public, but Castex encouraged people to work from home and avoid social gatherings according to an article from NDTV.
Nightclub owners were irked at the proposition, claiming to be unfairly targeted. Thierry Fontaine of the UMIH Nuit industry association said:
“Once again there’s no clampdown for any other sector,” he said. “They cancel New Year’s Eve for us… but they’ll be dancing in all the restaurants.”
New Year’s Eve is always a big draw for nightlife, however, France is not the only country in Europe to recently prohibit nightclub activities. As of now, Berlin nightclubs are closed to dancing. Nightclubs in the Netherlands fell back into restrictions several weeks ago after a spike in cases.
Currently, there doesn’t seem to be a similar ruling coming in the US, but only time will tell.
