While the city of Nice and the Alpes-Maritimes department are experiencing an epidemic outbreak relating to Covid-19 and its new variants, new restriction measures must be decided and announced on Monday, February 22, 2021.
A higher incidence rate than in the rest of the country
While there are 751 new cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants in Nice, and 587 per 100,000 inhabitants in the Alpes-Maritimes department over the past seven days, the incidence rates of these locations are almost three times higher to those observed in the rest of France. This is why new regional restrictions were discussed during local consultations throughout the weekend and should very quickly lead to new measures.
Visiting the Archet hospital in Nice this Saturday, February 20, Olivier Véran indicated that these new measures could ” take the form of increased curfew or partial containment “. According to Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, “ the epidemic is not out of control but we are on the verge of exceeding the saturation threshold of hospitals “. The occupancy rate of intensive care beds is in fact close to 98% for the entire region.
The local containment track on weekends
While the decision should be taken on Monday, February 22, 2021, the main track mentioned during the discussions is that of local confinement (more precisely in the coastal towns) on weekends. According to Jean Leonetti, “ I think I can say that the next two weekends will be containment weekends. The decision has already been made, it is not because we go around the elected officials that it will change anything “.
Beyond local confinement, other avenues were also mentioned such as the tightening of controls at airports, the generalization of the wearing of masks throughout the department, the strengthening of controls, the tightening of the gauge of shopping centers and the ban on entry into the department unless there is a compelling reason to avoid the tourist influx which, according to the mayor of Nice, would be partly responsible for the resurgence of coronavirus contamination in the sector. According to government spokesman Gabriel Attal, the cities concerned will be set as of today.
