PARIS, March 19 — Parisians packed inter-city trains leaving the capital today hours ahead of a new lockdown in the French capital imposed to combat a surge in coronavirus infections. The new restrictions, announced by Prime Minister Jean Castex late yesterday, apply to around a third of the...
Passengers board a TGV InOui high-speed train operated by state-owned railway company SNCF at Montparnasse railway station in Paris before a third lockdown March 19, 2021. — Reuters picPARIS, March 19 — Parisians packed inter-city trains leaving the capital today hours ahead of a new lockdown in the French capital imposed to combat a surge in coronavirus infections.
But the approach of the new curbs in Paris from midnight Friday encouraged many to leave the notoriously cramped city for areas without the measure, such as Brittany, the southwest Atlantic coast and Lyon in the southeast. Maiwenn, a 19-year old student clutching a giant suitcase, said she had decided to leave Paris to spend the rest of the university year with her family in Saint-Brieuc in Brittany.
Health Minister Olivier Veran expressed hope that this regional lockdown would be the last, with the situation helped by the onset spring and the vaccination campaign.