PARIS, May 3 (NNN-XINHUA) – The French government decided to extend the state of health emergency until July 24, to fight against the virus pandemic, Minister of Health, Olivier Vrran, announced.
The state of health emergency, installed since Mar 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, the minister told a press conference.
A staff member of a private cleaning and disinfection company disinfects metro trains in Vincennes near Paris, France, Apr 30. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard/Xinhua)
A bill on the extension 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 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 hit most by the virus pandemic, reported a death toll of 24,594 and 130,185 confirmed cases as of Friday.
Residents watch a film screened on the wall at the rue Daubenton in Paris, May 1. Every Friday evening, the independent cinema, La Clef, in the 5th arrondissement in Paris, screens a film on a wall in the rue Daubenton for the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, during strict lock-down to stop the spread of COVID-19.
