French PM: “Early Feb” Ski Resort opening possible, Bars/Restaurants closed to mid-Feb, UK border remains closed & more…

There will be no reopening of bars and restaurants before “at least mid-February” . There will be a point on January 20 to see if an “early February” reopening of theaters, cinemas, ski resorts and ski lifts is possible. The Prime Minister also announced that the border with the United Kingdom will remain closed “until further notice” and that the incredibly slow vaccination roll out will be sorted out.

From France 24 tonight – Full auto-translation below…
Curfews, vaccines, prospects for cultivation, catering or even ski resorts … Prime Minister Jean Castex has drawn up an inventory of health measures, while the Covid-19 epidemic is still circulating actively in France. Follow his press conference alongside the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.

While more than 25,000 cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in 24 hours in France, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, in a press conference with the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, defended the government’s vaccine strategy and attempted to “give as much visibility as possible” to the most affected sectors, including catering, culture and tourism.

Details were also provided on France’s vaccine strategy, which is the subject of criticism, as well as on the new health measures put in place to fight against the spread of the virus.

There will be no reopening of bars and restaurants until “at least mid-February”. Ten more departments could see the curfew pass to 6 p.m. The decision will be made on Friday.

There will be a point on January 20 to see if a reopening “early February” of ski resorts and ski lifts is possible.

The vaccine is our “main source of hope” to emerge from this crisis, said Jean Castex. The objective of the French campaign remains to vaccinate as a priority and as quickly as possible the 15 million elderly or chronically ill people, announced the Prime Minister, while acknowledging that it had started more slowly than elsewhere. . “We have ordered a lot more than necessary” to have “a margin of safety”, he explained, specifying nevertheless that “Not everyone can be vaccinated immediately in France”. “We will be able to immunize a million people by the end of January.”

The Prime Minister underlined the gravity of the situation in France which is “far from having returned to normal” and which even “tends to progress with an average of 15,000 daily cases”. “We are seeing very strong pressure on our hospital system,” he continued, saying that the situation in the east of the country as well as in Guyana was particularly worrying.

All laboratories are mobilized in France to track down the variant of the coronavirus discovered in the United Kingdom and which is “up to 70% more contagious”, said Olivier Véran. Health Minister Olivier Véran explained that the English variant is “more contagious” and responsible for “a significant worsening of the epidemic in England”. It is also believed to be more contagious in children. The Prime Minister announced that the border with the United Kingdom will remain closed “until further notice”.