PARIS (AP) – The French prime minister said Wednesday that the reopening of schools is “one of the essential conditions” for the recovery of the country’s economy, hampered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite the accumulation of shown cases of the virus, Jean Castex insisted that France will also have to return to the pictures and avoid “falling into an economic and social crisis that would be much more damaging than the fitness crisis.”
Speaking on France-Inter radio, and then in an annual forum of an array of business leaders, Medef, Castex suggested to his compatriots to wear more masks, but insisted that coronavirus infections across the country “are no cause for panic.”
However, he told the Medef assembly that “we are ready” at worst, while “doing everything for a general recomposition.”
France reported 5,429 new cases shown wednesday in the last 24 hours, well below the crisis levels faced by French hospitals in March and April. But the figure is more than 2,000 cases higher than the previous day. Neighbouring countries require quarantines for visitors from certain regions or throughout France.
There is also a mild but stable accumulation in the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care.
While he said in his radio interview that dressing in a mask all the time is “a little boring,” Castex suggested to others protesting the needs of masks “that they thought of others, hospital workers, medical workers, other vulnerable people. just because you feel invincible doesn’t mean you can pass (and) pollute others.”
Castex said France was seeking to return to school “in conditions as general as imaginable.”
“Our schools will resume, they will have to resume,” Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer told reporters on Wednesday, advancing the period on September 1.
“We will get advantages from the May and June party,” when French schools partially reopened after a two-month closure, he said.
In case of additional outbreaks, the government can simply take localized steps to close study rooms or schools. But Blanquer said the government would not publish all of its preparatory measures until the categories are resumed.
All middle and high school students will be required to wear masks while in school, as well as all staff, in accordance with World Health Organization recommendations.
As for the return to the office, the prime minister said France seeks to strike a balance between attendance at paintings and paintings at home.
Castex has called for a cautious withdrawal from cultural spaces, promising 2 billion euros to the French cultural industry to help it reduce revenue from museums, cinemas and other sites. The cash will be part of a hundred billion euro ($118 billion) economic stimulus package to be released next week.
“It is imperative that we get the engine back up and running,” Castex said at the Medef forum.
Without offering details, he said that the recovery plan would be “very broadly” aimed at the French regions, adding the rural areas heavily ignored, and that a balance would be discovered between small businesses. The production tax will be reduced by 10 billion euros a year and there will be an asset tax reform in local industries, he said.
More than 30,500 people with the virus have died in France.
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Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed to this report.
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