Day 27 of the 2nd Confinement

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Summary of M. Jean Castex press conference

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Today’s press conference

Here follows the main points

After the announcements, the explanation of the text: the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, details this Thursday since 11 am, during a press conference, the containment relief measures exposed by Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday evening.
The details of the deconfinement plan, in three stages:

🔹The broad outlines of the executive’s plan were known. From Saturday 28th November, small shops will be able to reopen with a reinforced sanitary protocol. The gauge is increased to 8 m2 per customer and to avoid excessive flows, retailers will be able to extend their opening hours until 9 pm and Sunday opening will be facilitated. Customers will be able to travel, with a certificate, within a radius of 20 km from their homes for three hours. Driving schools will reopen to prepare for the practical exams, but the theory will be done remotely. Libraries, archives and cultural shops (bookshops, record shops, etc.) will once again be open to the public. Places of worship will have a capacity of 30 people, but may change according to the situation.

🔹From December 15th, cinemas, theatres and museums will be able to reopen. And a national curfew, from 21:00 to 7:00, will replace the curfew that has been in force since 29 October. “These will be the same protocols that were applied during the curfew period,” said Roselyne Bachelot, the Minister of Culture. Conservatories and music schools will be able to resume, with the exception of singing lessons, which are “too risky in terms of spreading the virus”.

🔹The Prime Minister detailed the measures in place for the Christmas holidays.
Foreign travel will be “possible”, particularly in the overseas territories, provided that a PCR test of less than 72 hours can be produced.
Summer camps and ski resorts will be closed. However, the French will be able to go to the mountains “but all ski lifts will be closed to the public”. It will be “imperative” to “limit” the number of guests at Christmas and New Year.

🔹Finally, from January 20th, the restaurants will be able to welcome customers again, if the sanitary situation allows it. The Prime Minister has announced that he wants to make 2021 “the year of French gastronomy” to help restaurants. The discotheques remain closed.

🔹Details of the aid and support measures for businesses :

From December onwards, each administratively closed business “will be able to receive 10,000 euros per month or compensation representing 20% of turnover”.
For precarious workers (seasonal workers, casual workers, etc.) the Minister of Labour, Elisabeth Borne, has announced the introduction of “exceptional aid” of 900 euros per month which will be allocated on 1 November and until February.
The Prime Minister announced a doubling of the youth guarantee. “It is not 100,000 but 200,000 young people who will be able to benefit from it,” he said.

A questions and answers seesion followed: A few additional clarifications were made by the the Prime Minister and / or relevant Ministers. Do not hesitate to ask me if you have any questions / queries. I shall try and find the answers.

I retained 2 additional points from the question and answers session:

➡️ Detailed recommendations as far as the year end festivities (Xmas, New Year’s Eve) will be announced shortly.

➡️ Strategy for the foreseen vaccination program should be made available next week. There are still many open points to be answered.

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France

Targets to be reached by December 15th to stop the confinement

It is going to be very difficult to achieve

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✒︎Incidence rate

Still on a downward trend

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Latest info on PCR Tests

No updated data available right now

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✑ Meteo – IIt does not look to appealing.

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✑ Parody – I am sure you will all like these.

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Rest day yesterday or maybe it was lazy day

I have used someof the time to play with my Raspberry PI and try and set it up. I am glad to report this is done. Now I need to identify a few projects and start learning how to code… The last time I did that was on a main frame in the US using punched cards and the then famous Fortran language.