406 days since the 1st lockdown in March 2020

DAILY AND WEEKLY STATISTICS 📉 📊 📈 HERE .

● President Macron chose Le Parisien newspaper and the regional daily press to unveil his plan to reopen the country. The stages, the assessment of the vaccination, the strategic choices for France and the ambitions for the months to come, Emmanuel Macron puts everything on the table.

Emmanuel Macron has announced the “four stages” of the lifting of restrictions and closures imposed to combat the Covid-19 epidemic, as well as a gradual shift in the curfew, in an interview with several regional dailies.

An “emergency brake” is however foreseen, the President of the Republic specified. If in a department or a metropolis the incidence rate exceeds 400 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, that its increase is “very brutal” and that the resuscitation services risk “saturation”, the reopenings will be stopped there.

Here is what must change on each of the four dates selected:

⇢ May 3rd

The first step was already known: the end of daytime travel restrictions and the ban on travelling to another region, from 3 May, which will also see the return to class of secondary school pupils.

⇢ May 19th

After much speculation, 19 of May was finally chosen as the date for the second phase: the reopening of shops that are currently closed, the terraces of bars, cafés and restaurants (with a maximum of six people per table), and museums, cinemas, theatres and open-air sports facilities. In these cultural and sports venues, a visitor capacity must be respected: 800 people indoors, 1,000 outdoors.

The Head of State also confirmed that the starting time of the curfew will be changed from 7pm to 9pm on 19 May.

⇢ June 9th

On 9 June, bars, cafés and restaurants will also be able to reopen indoors, as will sports halls. The curfew will then start at 11pm.

On the same day, Emmanuel Macron announced that the instructions concerning the use of teleworking would be “relaxed”, “in conjunction with the social partners at company level”. Today, the instruction is to apply it at least four days a week for the posts where it is possible.

⇢ June 30th

Finally, on the 30th of June, the curfew will end. Cultural and sporting events will once again be authorised above the 1 000-person limit. But their access may be conditional on the presentation of a health pass, which Emmanuel Macron envisages for “stadiums, festivals, fairs or exhibitions”, but excludes restaurants or cinemas.

● VAT

From 1 July 2021, all parcels from outside the EU will be subject to VAT, which means a 20% price increase for all products sent especially from the Far East, which are sold en masse on many successful platforms. This new tax introduced by the European Commission will therefore make online consumption less cheap than it was.
Shipping costs or prices charged by platforms such as Amazon, Wish, Cdiscount, Darty or AliExpress, which offer many products sold outside the EU (especially from the Far East, particularly China), are therefore likely to increase. Indeed, these platforms host products put up for sale by third-party sellers (this is the case for 58% of the products sold on Amazon), and a large proportion of these sellers are based abroad (a third of the sellers on CDiscount).

● ELECTIONS

● Le Mans 24h

Our very nice young post lady has just been and delivered my latest acquisition to add to my budding collection. I am concentrating (but not only) at the moment on French cars which took part in the Le Mans 24h over the years.

On the subject, the 1st race of the WEC (World Endurance Championship) season is tomorrow Saturday with the 6 hours of Spa Francorchamp. I have renewed my WEC membership so that I can watch all the races on line.

● WEATHER

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● MUSIC

● VINTAGE

● SOME LINKS I LIKE TO USE