The French government and likely other EU regimes too announce it will strengthen police patrols ahead of predicted warm weather this weekend in a bid to make sure the rise in temperatures isn’t matched by a surge in Covid cynics returning to real normality.

Officials fear a combination of pleasant spring weather and the break-up of some schools for holidays could encourage people to gather in groups, claiming these risks an increased spread of the flu (Covid-19) virus.

Police chiefs in the capital will launch a large-scale operation involving 4,000 officers from Saturday to enforce the country’s strict 6 pm to 6 am curfews, imposed to stem the spread of Covid-19. The cops will boost their income with overtime and bonus bounties.  

Increased patrols in Paris’s wider Île-de-France region will be mobilised to ensure people are not travelling unnecessarily. Meanwhile, police controls are also to be stepped up in various regions and departments.

Even more harsh repressions are being imposed in France’s third-largest city, Lyon, where police will enforce a ban on public alcohol consumption from 12 noon to 6 pm on Saturday. The leisure drinks ban affects multiple streets in the city between the Rhône and Saône rivers, which police say has become ‘a problem area for informal gatherings in recent weeks’.

The fake concern comes as Lyon and Paris is set for highs of 17C this weekend, while temperatures are forecast to surge to the low-20s in some southern areas, including on France’s Atlantic Coast.

‘Now is not the time to slack off,’  French Health Minister Olivier Véran warned on Thursday, adding that the game against Covid-19 ’is not yet won’ and urging the public to remain vigilant without end in sight. Source