French President Emmanuel Macron today announced a new nationwide lockdown today, claiming that 400,000 people will die of coronavirus if the country does nothing in a second wave that will be ‘more deadly than the first. The national measures will take effect from Friday morning until December 1 and are considered to be ‘more flexible’ than the country’s first lockdown, with all public services, schools and ‘essential workplaces to remain open. But people on the streets will still have to carry documents justifying leaving their home, and they will be subject to police checks and bars and restaurants will close. 
Justifications for leaving home include buying essential goods, seeking medical attention or taking a daily one-hour allocation of exercise Macron called the new restrictions ‘heartbreaking’ but said he ‘could never standby and see hundreds of thousands of its citizens die.
‘ Macron told the country:
‘I decided that it was necessary to insist on a lockdown throughout the country from Friday’. ‘We’ve already reached 58 per cent capacity in IC units. In numerous places, we have seen life-saving operations delayed. And 9,000 patients will be in ICU by mid-November – that’s our maximum capacity in France.’
France on Tuesday reported 523 new deaths from coronavirus and 33,417 new confirmed cases over the previous 24 hours, the highest daily death toll since April when the virus was at its most severe. Macron added:
“The virus is circulating at a speed that not even the most pessimistic forecasts had anticipated.’Like all our neighbours, we are submerged by the sudden acceleration of the virus.”We are all in the same position: overrun by a second wave which we know will be harder, more deadly than the first.’
