French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday evening that France will enter its second nationwide lockdown on Friday, in response to recent spikes in new coronavirus cases.
Macron said during a televised address that the new lockdown is necessary because the country has been “overpowered by a second wave.”
France began lifting restrictions imposed during its first lockdown in mid-May, and while the country appeared to have flattened its virus curve throughout the summer months, new case numbers began increasing in August. In recent days, public health officials have reported daily case increases in the tens of thousands, with more than 36,000 new cases reported on Wednesday alone.
In a series of posts on Twitter, Macron acknowledged other European countries that have taken stricter lockdown approaches in recent weeks due to the continent’s rising case numbers.
“Yet we are all at the same point: overwhelmed by a second wave that we now know will be harder, more deadly than the first,” he wrote.
Macron said details regarding the extent of the lockdown will be released on Thursday.
More than 1.2 million cases had been reported in France by Wednesday, according to the country’s public health database. France has reported more than 270,000 new infections in the last week, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tracker, and ranks fifth in the world in terms of total confirmed infections since the start of the pandemic.
“The virus is circulating in France at a speed that even the most pessimistic forecasts had not anticipated,” Macron said on Twitter. “Unlike the first wave, all regions are now on the alert threshold.”
Newsweek reached out to Public Health France for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
This story is breaking and will be updated as more information becomes available.
