France locks down Paris as third wave forces tougher curbs in some areas

France’s prime minister on Thursday imposed a month-long lockdown on Paris and parts of the north after a faltering vaccine rollout and spread of highly contagious coronavirus variants forced President Emmanuel Macron to shift course.

Since late January, when he defied the calls of scientists and some in his government to lock the country down, Macron has said he would do whatever it took to keep the euro zone’s second largest economy as open as possible.

However, this week he ran out of options just as France and other European countries suspended use of the AstraZenca vaccine.

The rapid spread of the variant first detected in Britain, now accounting for three quarters of all cases in France, has filled intensive care wards, notably in the Paris region where the incidence rate surpasses 400 in every 100,000 inhabitants.

Prime Minister Jean Castex told a press conference France was now in the grip of a third wave.